Brendon McCullum watches son Riley play in U-19 tournament

Former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and his wife Ellissa were seen watching their son Riley play at the National Under-19 tournament on Monday (January 9). Riley, who is donning jersey number 14, unlike his father’s famous 42, is a left-handed batter.

While the 18-year-old features for Northern Districts, his father, uncle Nathan McCullum and grandfather Stuart McCullum represented Otago Volts. Meanwhile, Riley wants to follow in his father’s footsteps in international cricket and also revealed the advice his father gave him.

“It’s always been something that I want to do. I still tell him to this day, whenever he says ‘I don’t want to go away and work’, I’m like ‘you’re literally doing what I want to do for the rest of my life’. He’s always telling me to not worry about it too much. If you don’t score runs, the runs will come,” Riley told 1News.

Riley McCullum plans on playing ‘Bazball’

Riley was the top-scorer with 48 runs for Northern Districts in their five-wicket loss against Wellington on Sunday. In the latest match against Otago, he scored 14, and took a catch and wicket as well. When asked about his plan to adapt the Bazball cricket, the youngster said, “It probably is, to be honest.”

Notably, England have adopted an attacking approach in Test cricket ever since the appointment of Brendon as the head coach last year. The Three Lions have been dominating Test cricket under the management of McCullum and captain Ben Stokes with nine wins from the last ten Tests.

In their recent tour to Pakistan, England scored a record 506 runs on Day 1 in the Rawalpindi Test with four batters scoring quick hundreds. England’s red-ball team’s head coach returned home after sweeping Pakistan 0-3 in the recent away series in December 2022. England travel to New Zealand for the two-match series starting on February 16 in their next assignment.