Chris Gayle

The game is always bigger than a player but some players make the game richer by helping in its development. When the shortest format of the game was still an alien for the world, Chris Gayle had a template of how things might look in the future with his style of batting. Gayle always played with flair and charisma and it was his talent to win games single-handedly that made him the star. 

A 19-year-old Gayle hailing from Jamaica, made his International debut in 1999 in an ODI against India, where he didn’t open the batting for West Indies. He played a Test game next year and was part of the first breed to play the T20 format in 2006. 

Fast-forward to 2021, Christopher Henry Gayle is one of the best players from the West Indies. He has played over 100 Tests, 300 ODIs, and more than 400 T20 games in his illustrious career. He is the first to score 10K runs with the most runs in centuries, sixes, and fours in the ODI format. He is also the highest run-getter for his national side in the 50-overs format.

When the inaugural T20 World Cup was held in South Africa, Gayle lit up the cricketing world and showed how differently cricket can be played. On faster pitches of South Africa where batsmen could not show courage to come on the front foot, Gayle started planting his front foot and smashed pacers over their heads. 

Gayle’s journey has been a mixed experience in the Indian Premier League (IPL). After a staggering World T20, Gayle was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the inaugural IPL season. The dasher stayed with the KKR for three seasons, before migrating to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2011. 

Gayle was at his brutal best for three consecutive seasons from 2011 to 2013 when he was with the RCB and plummeted bowlers for 608, 733, 708 runs. Though, after an under-par 2014 season, the ‘Universe Boss’ returned to the usual best in the 2015 edition, when he piled up 491 runs. However, after another poor IPL season in 2017, Bangalore released him.  

Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) bought the mighty opener for 2018 at his base price and he smashed a ton in his first game in the season, then went on to bash 368 runs and followed it up with 490 runs in 13 games. However, the 41-year-old might be in his swansong and will try to redeem himself in the 2021 edition on the high and help his team in shedding the ‘underachiever’ tag. 

(As of March 2021)