Chris Gayle

Twenty20 cricket seemingly picked Chris Gayle as its ambassador, for he scored the very first hundred in the format and now uncontestedly owns almost every record there is, including that of the most runs (now 10,000+), most hundreds, fastest hundred, and most fours and sixes.

Chris Gayle might stand tall at over six feet and wield his bat to make or break T20 leagues, but make no mistake about his affinity for Test cricket. His absenteeism from Tests later in his career may seem to suggest otherwise but Gayle has racked up 15 Test hundreds and over 7,000 runs across 103 matches so far, and frequently turns up for his many T20 franchises in jerseys numbered 333 - his highest First Class score, which he made against Sri Lanka at Galle, to become only the fourth batsman after Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag with two Test triples in a lifetime.

Renowned as one of the most barbarous hitters of the cricket ball ever - he once swung a Brett Lee delivery past the Lord Tennyson school outside Oval! - Gayle dismissed footwork to a famous cricketing redundancy of his time, and along with other contemporary opening batsmen in Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virender Sehwag, and Brendon McCullum later, fashioned a batting era characterized by an unreal dependence on hand-eye coordination and breakneck run-scoring across formats. No wonder he became the first batsman to hit the first ball of a Test match for a six. And it's only fair that he beat Sehwag to become the fastest double centurion in ODIs, minting 215 off 147 in a World Cup game against Zimbabwe in Canberra, 2015.

Being the first cricketer with hundreds in all three formats, Gayle deservedly personifies the weight struggle between various cricket formats that stood intensified with the launch of IPL in 2008. So in 2009, Chris Gayle arrived in England after playing seven IPL games to captain West Indies in a Test match at Lord's, a game that his side lost heavily amidst scathing criticism from media and fans alike.

Be it because of his growing T20 appetite, his never-ending conflicts with the West Indies Cricket Board, or his degrading fitness level, Gayle's international appearances have gone from few and far in between to very little off late, with his focus now on being a T20 freelancer, not singularly in an era where retirement-age dangerously seems to hover around thirty-two.

Debuting for West Indies as a 20-year-old in the year 2000, Gayle went on to captain the national side, taking over from Ramnaresh Sarwan. He didn't start as an opening batsman, but soon graduated into one, but despite well-timed performances and a good record, doubts over Gayle's technique against seam and swing have remained.

Come to the more batsman-friendly limited-overs format, and Gayle seems more at home. To quell his effectiveness at the top, captains have often preferred to start with off-spin, his branded nemesis, as typified by Ravichandran Ashwin's hold over him. If not that, teams have religiously relied on short-pitched deliveries, aimed at his ribs, which Gayle either top-edges or more often buries deep into the square leg stands. His long reach helps him to get to the pitch of the change-up full deliveries which he nonchalantly carves back over the bowler's head.

Gayle's aversion to running ones and twos - more conspicuous later in his career - shouldn't startle you as much as his reliance on them, rotating the strike early in his innings before unleashing a theatrical, sometimes unstoppable barrage of king-sized sixes all around. His wonderfully limited agility makes for memorable catches, especially in the slip cordon where he stands from time to time, courtesy merit or convenience, or both. His handy off-spin and the ability to skid the new ball through once guaranteed an automatic selection into any team, including that of the prying T20 leagues around the world.

Even as he belted records all over the place, Gayle'e mounting injury woes meant his stints with the West Indies national side have become rarer. He hasn't officially retired from Tests, he says his love for the longest form of the game hasn't ended, and fitness permitting, he would still love to add to his tally of 103 Tests. He's a man who leads by example. He's led his home franchise, Jamaica Tallawahs, to title triumphs in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) before shifting his allegiance to St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots - whom he took to the final in the fifth edition of the tournament.

Come to the Bangladesh Premier League, Gayle played for Rangpur Riders in the 2017-18 season and won the Player of the Series award for notching up the highest number of runs. Although he occasionally featured in T20Is for Windies, he wasn't a regular in the ODI setup. During Windies' tour of England in 2017, Gayle was recalled into the ODI side after a hiatus of more than 2.5 years. It was a start of a good run as he turned out in most games, helping Windies qualify to the 2019 World Cup and smashing England to all parts in the home series in early 2019. However, he lost form during the mega event which did not help the Caribbean side as they won only two games and finished ninth.

IPL - Through the years

Having lit up the 2007 World T20 with a stunning century in his first match, the big bucks were expected to flow in at the 2008 auction, and it was KKR, with a whopping 800,000 USD, giving him his first home. However, with West Indies generally touring during this period, and Gayle not quite hitting his groove, his biggest news-making headline in the first three seasons came when he extended his IPL stay to land at Lord's just a day before he was set to lead his side in a Test. But with middling form, both internationally and in the IPL in the past, he found no takers in the 2011 major auction, eventually needing an injury to Dirk Nannes for RCB to call him up as a replacement.

What followed in the next three years was absolute carnage - announcing his arrival with a century, finishing 2011 with 608 runs and the orange cap, 2012 with 733 runs and the orange cap and notching up the highest ever T20 score of 175 in 2013 (which included a 31-ball century) against the Pune Warriors. Soon after, he started calling himself the 'Universe Boss'. Well, nobody could dare disagree. With age catching up, the reflexes slowing down and injuries pulling him back, the consistency began to fall, reaching such a stage in 2017 when he had to be dropped from the eleven. Although reluctantly, KXIP lapped him up in the 2018 auction for the base price, and though not the player of the old, he was a good enough version of himself, winning a couple of matches single-handedly and played a key role in Punjab's success in the first half of the tournament.

Written by Pratyush Sinha