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The player has endured a roller-coaster build-up to the World Cup, being juggled around a batting order which finally looks settled ahead of their tournament opener against Kenya on Sunday in Chennai.
The New Zealand think-tank experimented with pushing McCullum down the order in one-dayers against Pakistan last month but have now decided to restore him to the top. And no one seems happier with the decision than the player himself.
"The previous two World Cups I played down the order (where) you've got reasonably limited opportunities to create an impact," McCullum, 29, said after a training session in Chennai.
"That's why I'm absolutely determined to play a role at the top of the order this time around."
An on-song McCullum can give the Kiwis just the start they need in high-pressure situations on treacherous sub-continent wickets.
"I think the whole process of our order and who is going to bat where and those sorts of things came from our selectors," McCullum said.
"Now we have arrived in India and are pretty settled about what our line-up's going to be."
"I've had four years of batting at the top of the order now, those two World Cups were rehearsals as well, it's all set up for this, and I will focus on trying to play some influential innings throughout the tournament."
McCullum can play shots on either side of the wicket with ease and most of his fans would remember his quickfire innings in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008.
The right-hander lit up the tournament's first match with 158, showing others what the format had to offer.
He also became the second man, after West Indies' Chris Gayle, to score a Twenty20 international century in Christchurch in 2009-10.
McCullum says he would leave his big-hitting and innovative shots for the later overs and concentrate on seeing off the new ball first.
"There are times where you try and bring in some innovation but the majority of my game is going to be based around facing the new ball," he said.
"Hopefully if I get through that and have a high strike rate, then I will look to take the spinners on in the middle stages."
"The thing about innovation is that it is mostly reserved for Twenty20, or for batting towards the death," said the Kiwi, who has 3,781 runs from 184 one-day internationals with two hundreds and 18 half-centuries.
