Chris Gayle 2.0:An entertainer captivating three generations
Collected
|| Desk Report ||
West Indies legend Chris Gayle is the oldest and most experienced player in this World Cup. Being a 39-year old guy, this World Cup is believed to be his last. So the universe boss as he loves to dub himself will definitely want to end his career with a World Cup trophy beside his name.
Chris Gayle started his career in 1999, since then he played 292 ODI matches in his career. In his illustrious career, he faced all the top ODI bowlers from three generations. At the start of his career, he played bowlers like Shoaib Akhter, Wasim Akram, Gleen McGrath, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidharan.
At the mid-point of his career, he proved his class against pacers like James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn. And at the fag end of his career, he is facing young guns like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Amir and Kagiso Rabada.
Overall Chris Gayle has taken himself apart from others by playing against bowlers of three generations. In this World Cup he is facing young guns like Jofra Archer, Pat Cummins, Rashid Khan and others with his natural flamboyance.
Among the bowlers of these three generations, Gayle played the first generation bowlers more. His statistics is also sky high against them. From 1999 to 2007 he has scored 6244 runs in 176 ODI matches with an average of 40. And he has also scored 16 centuries in this period.
After the start of T20 leagues from 2007, Gayle played T20 matches in different franchise league mostly other than international ODI matches. From 2008 to 2015, Gayle played just 93 ODI matches, scored 2977 runs in this period with an average of 34.21. He scored 7 centuries and his highest ODI score 215 also came in this period against the 2nd generation bowlers.
And Gayle has played few matches in the last generation. He was active playing t20 leagues all around the World at that time. He has played only 23 matches so far in this period, scored 1001 runs with 3 centuries and his batting average is 48 in this period.
No matter what his age, no matter which bowler is he facing, the name Chris Gayle is a name of fear to the bowlers of every generation. He played every bowler without any hint of fear and most importantly he never changed his style of batting. Gayle played 292 ODI matches, scored 10222 runs and 25 centuries in his celebrated career.
