McCullem shifts focus

Brendon McCullem is probably the best wicket-keeper/batsmen since Adam Gilchrist. The New Zealander has now decided to hang up his gloves and focus on his batting. This is a brave call from McCullem, who won’t be guaranteed a place in the side on his batting alone. The Kiwi knows the risk he is taking stating "You go from being one of the major certainties in the team to now being in the mix and being relatively unproven. It's a huge challenge and hopefully it'll be the right decision."

Luckily for the 28 year old has proved his quality over the years and should keep his place. The hard hitting batsman was just awarded his country’s best ODI batting prize along with the best all-rounder award but will still need to perform to keep his place.

While McCullem will carry on behind the stumps during the shorter forms of the game, he will give up the gloves for Test matches. The main reason is that as a keeper, Online Cricket Betting pundits note how McCullem very rarely gets the chance to bat higher than number seven in the Test side.

His current average of 35 indicates he could do a good job for the Kiwi’s further up the order. Giving up the extra pressure of keeping should extend McCullem’s career with his national side.

While New Zealand will miss McCullem’s glove work behind the stumps, Gareth Hopkins will be a very capable replacement who should maintain the team’s Cricket odds in matches.With McCullem further up the order in their Test side, they will go into future matches knowing their batting line up has been significantly strengthened.