Brendon McCullum responsible for Colin Munro's swashbuckling knock at Kanpur

Prior to the start of the second innings of the Kanpur ODI, New Zealand opener Colin Munro might have felt the heat without contributions behind his name on the tour and the Kiwis staring at a daunting total.

Barring the India ‘A’ matches, Munro registered two scores of 26 against Board President’s XI and two scores of 28 in the first two ODIs of the series. However, Munro adopted the counter-attacking ploy in the third ODI to give the Kiwis a blistering start while forging a stabilizing partnership with captain Kane Williamson.

He ended up with an impressive score of 75 off just 62 balls, smacking the Indian bowlers all around the park before he got bamboozled by a beauty from Yuzvendra Chahal. Munro later revealed that it was the advice from Kiwi legend and Trinbago Knight Riders’ teammate Brendon McCullum which helped him overcome his scepticism.

Munro reached out to McCullum via text prior to the match

“It is a funny one, actually, because after the second game I wouldn’t say I was down but I hadn’t got off to a start I wanted to while opening the batting. So, I sent him a text message to ask him his thoughts and let him know what I was thinking,” disclosed Colin Munro according to TOI.

“And again he came out and said ‘Mate, you know you got a good record in T20 and the way you play at the top of the order. If you can, try and implement that in the ODI game’,” further revealed the destructive Kiwi opener.

Munro then stated that the team is missing out on the services of Mitchell McClenaghan, who was sidelined due to injury, and Luke Ronchi, who retired from International cricket recently.

“Their absence has been felt but (Tom) Latham has done really well this season. We have got an experienced bowling attack,” concluded the Kolkata and Trinbago Knight Riders’ swashbuckling batsman.