LAST weekend Brendon McCullum was doing his best Adam Gilchrist impersonation, and now he’s taken down the world’s second-ranked Test batsman AB de Villiers.

The New Zealand captain made history in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Hamilton when he racked up the most consecutive Test matches by a player from debut. McCullum is playing his 99th game in the whites, having not missed a match since his first appearance way back in 2004.

De Villiers also debuted in 2004 and played 98 Tests in a row before he missed South Africa’s tour of Bangladesh this year to spend time with his family. He had previously overtaken Adam Gilchrist’s run of 96 consecutive Tests from debut.

Fittingly, McCullum secured the record at the same venue where his Test career began 11 years ago. He spent many of his early years behind the stumps as a wicketkeeper, and has been tried in various spots in the batting order from opener to number seven.

But back troubles meant he relinquished the gloves and he has since found a permanent home at number five for the Black Caps. He took over the captaincy from Ross Taylor in late 2012 and helped bring an attacking ethos that was for so long lacking from New Zealand cricket sides.

The 34-year-old sits fifth on the list of most Tests played in a row at any stage in a career — a list headed by former Aussie captain Allan Border, who played 153 out of his 156 Tests consecutively. England opening batsman Alastair Cook is second with 120 games on the trot, while Mark Waugh and Sunil Gavaskar are third and fourth with 107 and 106 Tests, respectively.

Prior to this game against the Sri Lankans, McCullum had racked up 6237 runs in the five-day format, including 11 centuries, while boasting 192 catches and 11 stumpings. Without doubt his most memorable performance was the incredible 302 he scored against India in 2014 to salvage a draw when his side looked like losing inside four days.

It set the tone for a golden year for him as he posted two more double centuries after that (to go with the 224 he notched up in the previous Test against the Indians) as well as a rapid-fire 195 off 134 balls against Sri Lanka in that year’s Boxing Day Test.

In the first Test of the Kiwis’ series against Sri Lanka going on now, the explosive right-hander equalled Adam Gilchrist’s record for the most sixes hit in Test cricket. He cleared the boundary with the last ball he faced in Dunedin — the 100th time he’s done that — to sit alongside the former Australian gloveman as the only men to reach three figures in the six-hitting department.

At stumps on day two of the Black Caps’ clash with the Angelo Mathews-led Sri Lankans, McCullum’s team is trailing by 60 runs with one wicket in hand.

A short-ball barrage from quick Dushmantha Chameera (5-47) sent the hosts into disarray as they collapsed from 0-81 to 4-89. Handy contributions from Mitchell Santner (38), B.J. Watling (28) and Doug Bracewell (30 not-out) have kept New Zealand in the game as they reached 9-232 by day’s end.

Earlier, Mathews (77) combined with Milinda Siriwardana (62) to set up the visitors’ first innings total of 292. Tim Southee was the pick of the Black Caps’ bowlers with 3-63.