It literally changed my life..: New Zealand's Brendon McCullum reveals how IPL impacted him

New Zealand legendBrendon McCullum has revealed that the Indian Premier League (IPL) changed his life. In 2008, when the inaugural IPL game was played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, McCullum shone with his bat and produced an unbeaten 158-run knock off just 73 balls. Riding on his batting brilliance, Kolkata hammered Bengaluru by 140 runs and registered their biggest win (by runs). In the opening IPL season, McCullum’s captain in KKR was Sourav Ganguly. Australia legend Ricky Ponting was the Kiwi batter’s teammate in Kolkata’s camp.

Recently, the England head coach appeared in "For The Love Of Cricket" podcast and revealed that IPL impacted him and he was also mesmerised

by players such as Guguly and Ponting in the KKR dressing room. “It literally changed my life. I don’t say that lightly. Coming from where I come from, playing for New Zealand, cricket is very much secondary to rugby, and I was like not established at all really at international cricket when I got picked up for that first IPL. I remember I was looking around the dressing room at Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly, and all these amazing players, and I had a bit of imposter syndrome. I was like ‘Geez, how am I in? How am I going to open the batting when I have got all these gun players here?’” remarked the New Zealander.

Brendon McCullum’s IPL records over the years

Brendon McCullum played IPL from 2008 to 2018 and during this period, he served five teams. After serving KKR from 2008 to 2010, he became a part of Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011. After Kochi’s termination, he returned to Kolkata for 2012 and 2013 seasons. In 2014 and 2015 season, he played for Chennai Super Kings led by MS Dhoni.

Following CSK’s suspension for the next two years, he donned Gujarat Lions’ jersey. In 2018, he also played for RCB under Virat Kohli’s leadership. In his 10-year IPL career, he smashed 2880 runs with 13 fifties and two hundreds in 109 matches at a strike rate of 131.74.