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Chris Gayle – The Universe Boss
The English may have invented Twenty20 cricket and India may be the beating heart of the game, but Chris Gayle – from the laid-back islands of the Caribbean – was unquestionably the format’s first superstar. Think of a T20 batting record and chances are that Gayle owns it. He was the first batsman to hit a century in a T20 World Cup, but to stereotype him merely as a 20-over player wouldn’t do justice to a man who scaled the heights in each of the three formats. For someone considered lazy, he had the patience and stamina to score 2 Test triple hundreds. He saved games by batting more than a day. And after the West Indies Cricket Board’s own chairman had dismissively hinted at his waning powers, Gayle smashed an ODI 200 at the 2015 World Cup.
For millions of new-generation fans, though, the Gayle force will always be associated with the Indian T20 League and his exploits in the Bangalore jersey. When they picked him as a replacement for Dirk Nannes a few games into the 2011 season, Gayle’s stock was at an all-time low. Ignored at the auction earlier in the year and considered a troublemaker by his board, he had more than a point to prove.
He needed just 12 innings to state his case and walk away with the Orange Cap in 2011. The 608 runs he bludgeoned came at an incredible strike rate of 183.13. He would top 700 runs in each of the next two seasons, with the only regret being that the combination with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers – arguably the scariest trio to face for a bowler – didn’t yield any trophies.
He moved to the Punjab team in 2018 and soon scored the 6th of his Indian T20 League centuries. In 2019, months short of his 40th birthday, he made 490 runs for the season, including a score of 99*. The more people were tempted to write him off, the more ways he found to prove them wrong.
Despite his reputation as an anti-establishment man, Gayle played more than 100 Tests and 300 ODIs. Some of the records he has set on his many stops on the T20 circuit may never be broken. In a format considered high-risk, Gayle was the first to show that, with the right methods, you could be just as consistent as in any other form of the game. He stuck to the basics of the game without ever losing any of the flamboyance. There hasn’t been another like him.
Chris Gayle’s Personal Details
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- Name
- :
- Christopher Henry Gayle
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- Date of Birth
- :
- 21st September 1979
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- Birthplace
- :
- Kingston, Jamaica
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- Height
- :
- 6′3″
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- Batting Style
- :
- Left-handed batter
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- Playing Role
- :
- Top-order batter
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- Major Teams Played For
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- West Indies, Kolkata team, Bangalore team, Punjab team
Chris Gayle’s Current Rankings
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T20 107th -
ODI -- -
Test --
Chris Gayle Career Summary
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- Format
- M
- Inn
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100
- 200
- 50
- 4s
- 6s
- CT
-
- Test
- 103
- 182
- 7214
- 333 vs SL
- 42.18
- 60.26
- 15
- 0
- 37
- 1046
- 98
- 96
-
- ODI
- 301
- 294
- 10480
- 215 vs ZIM
- 37.83
- 87.19
- 24
- 1
- 54
- 1128
- 331
- 124
-
- T20I
- 74
- 70
- 1854
- 117 vs SA
- 29.42
- 139.18
- 2
- 0
- 14
- 155
- 121
- 18
Chris Gayle - Key Skills and Strengths
Elite-level cricketers are usually characterized by impeccable technique and footwork. Gayle wasn’t unduly fussed about either. What he did have was unbelievable hand-eye coordination that allowed him to pick the length and dispatch the ball where he pleased. Gayle was no one-paced six hitter either. He could play the waiting game, even in T20s, and then explode at the moment of his choosing. His power could be staggering, with even mis-hits carrying over the rope. And the list of bowlers he destroyed reads like a who’s who of the world game.
For someone lauded for his batting, Gayle’s brisk off-breaks also fetched him 259 international wickets. With his bucket hands, he didn’t drop many catches either.
Chris Gayle’s Captaincy Record
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- Format
- Matches
- Won
- Lost
- Tie
- NR
-
- ODI
- 20
- 3
- 9
- 0
- 8
-
- T20I
- 53
- 17
- 30
- 0
- 6
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- I T20 League
- 17
- 6
- 10
- 1
- 0
Chris Gayle Awards and Achievements
No one player has ever dominated the Indian T20 League like Gayle did for three seasons. His effortless lofts over the covers and the almost-casual flicks over midwicket drove bowlers to distraction for more than two decades. Whether in Test cricket or the limited-overs formats, he has accumulated many records and accolades, while playing for the West Indies cricket team, Bangalore and other T20 franchises.
Here are some of Gayle’s biggest achievements in international cricket:
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Besides Gayle, Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag are the only other players who have 2 Test triple hundreds to their name.
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No one has hit more sixes in international cricket. Of the current crop of players, Rohit Sharma (440) comes second, far behind Gayle’s tally of 550.
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Gayle was the first to cross the 200-run mark in a World Cup game, with his 215 against Zimbabwe in 2015.
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He was the first to score a century in the T20 World Cup, his 117 against South Africa (2007).
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Gayle has more than 14,000 runs in T20s. Kieron Pollard, in second place, is more than 3000 runs behind him.
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Gayle leads the way with 22 T20 centuries. No one else has scored more than 8.
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He is the only man to hit more than 1000 sixes in T20s. Gayle (1042) is way ahead of Pollard (758).
Chris Gayle’s Indian T20 League Journey
His first two seasons in the Indian T20 League with the Kolkata team showed us only glimpses of the mayhem he was to unleash later. He found his true home in Bangalore in 2011 and seldom looked back. Though his form tailed off in his final two seasons with Bangalore, the move to Punjab in 2018 seemed to revive his appetite for runs. He hasn’t won trophies with either team, but has provided hours of entertainment with his powerful stroke play and cool persona.
Here are some of Gayle’s biggest achievements in the Indian T20 League:
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Of those with more than 3000 runs in the league, only AB de Villiers and Kieron Pollard have a better strike rate than Gayle (148.96).
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No one matches Gayle’s tally of 6 Indian T20 League hundreds.
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His 175* against Pune in 2013 is the highest individual score in Indian T20 League history by a distance.
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He struck a record 17 sixes in the game against Pune.
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He also scored the fastest century in the league, taking just 30 balls to reach his hundred.
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He leads the way when it comes to sixes hit, with 357 sixes in total. De Villiers, in second place, has hit 247.
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He is the only player to hit more than 50 sixes in two seasons of the league.
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He was adjudged the Man of the Tournament in the 2011 edition.
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- Format
- M
- Runs
- HS
- Avg
- SR
- 100
- 50
- 4s
- 6s
- CT
-
- Indian T20 League
- 142
- 4965
- 175* vs Pune
- 39.72
- 148.96
- 6
- 31
- 405
- 357
- 29
Chris Gayle: FAQs
He claims he would have been the world’s best footballer, playing for Manchester United. In a recent interview, he said he wanted to give Cristiano Ronaldo “a chance” to be the best.
They celebrated with the Gangnam style dance, which was popularized by PSY, a Korean singer.
The Triple Century Sports Bar – a reference to his 2 triple hundreds in Tests.
After getting into all kinds of trouble for saying “Don’t blush, baby” to a female interviewer, Gayle responded to the months of controversy by naming his daughter Blush.
Brian Lara, who was his teammate for more than half a decade, is Gayle’s favorite cricketer.
He was called “Crampy,” a Jamaican slang for lazy or laid-back.
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