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Brendon McCullum to retire after Australia series

by Manuj Sharma Tuesday 22 December 2015

Brendon McCullum will play his 100th Test match against Australia in Wellington.

©REUTERS / Action Images

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has announced that he will retire from international cricket in February after the conclusion of the home series against Australia.

This news means that the flamboyant batsman will not be playing the 2016 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 in India.

The 34-year-old, who made his international debut in One-Day Internationals in 2002 has so far played 254 ODIs, 99 Tests and 71 T20 Internationals for the Black Caps.

Earlier this week, in the Test match against Sri Lanka in Hamilton, McCullum broke the record of playing the most consecutive Tests from debut.

McCullum clarified that he wanted to announce his retirement after the completion of the Australia series but he did not want to cause a confusion for the 2016 World T20 squad selection.

“Ideally, I would have preferred to wait until after the Test in Christchurch to make this news public.

“However, the schedule for naming the ICC World T20 squads means I couldn’t have managed this without causing a lot of confusion and speculation - something I was keen to avoid.”

Known for his swashbuckling style of batting McCullum has 6273 runs from 172 Test innings at an average of 38.48 including 11 hundreds and 31 fifties.

From 254 ODIs, McCullum has amassed 5909 runs with five hundreds and 31 fifties and averaging 30.30 per dismissal.

McCullum is also the highest run getter in T20Is having scored 2140 runs from 70 innings at an average of 35.66 and is the only player to have two centuries in the format.

Stating that he loved every opportunity with New Zealand as a player and as a captain, McCullum now wants to focus on the challenge of playing Australia at home.

“I’ve loved my opportunity to play for, and captain the Blackcaps, but all good things have to come to an end, and I’m just grateful for the wonderful experience of playing for my country.

“There’s a time and place for reflection and that’s at the end of your career.

“For now, I’ll be giving all my attention to helping the team focus on what’s coming up over the next few weeks - and making sure we’re in the best possible shape for what’s going to be a very challenging summer.”

In 2014, McCullum hit the first triple century in Tests by a New Zealand batsman and also became the first Black Caps player to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.

McCullum's captaincy has seen New Zealand win 11 Tests from 29 matches apart from leading the team to the finals of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Most recently, McCullum also equalled the record for most sixes in Test cricket (100), an achievement that he shares with former Australian wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist.