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Chris Gayle

ChrisGayle Cropped
ChrisGayle Cropped Image: Wikimedia Commons. Dannow at English Wikipedia / Public domain

Overview

Christopher Henry Gayle, OD (born 21 September 1979) is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies in international cricket from 1999 to 2021. A left-handed opening batsman and right-arm off-break bowler, Gayle is widely regarded as one of the greatest Twenty20 batsmen in the history of the game. He featured in the West Indies sides that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2016 ICC World Twenty20.

Key facts

Full name Christopher Henry Gayle
Born 21 September 1979
Nationality Jamaican
Honour Order of Distinction (OD)
Batting Left-handed
Bowling Right-arm off-break
International career 1999–2021
Test captaincy 2007–2010
Last Test September 2014, vs Bangladesh
Final ODI August 2019, vs India (301st ODI)

International career

Gayle is the most capped player for the West Indies in international cricket. He is the only batsman in history to have scored a triple hundred in Tests, a double hundred in One Day Internationals and a century in Twenty20 Internationals. He is also the leading run scorer for the West Indies in both ODIs and T20Is, and after Brian Lara was the second player to cross 10,000 ODI runs for the West Indies.

Tests

In Test cricket, Gayle scored more than 7,000 runs at an average of over 42. He captained the West Indies Test team from 2007 to 2010, and played his final Test in September 2014 against Bangladesh.

One Day Internationals

Gayle was the first West Indian batsman to score a double-century in ODI cricket, achieving the feat at a Cricket World Cup with an innings of 215 against Zimbabwe. The innings remains the highest individual ODI score by a left-handed batsman. Against South Africa in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, he scored an unbeaten 133, the highest score by a West Indian in that tournament. After indicating that he would retire from ODI cricket after the 2019 Cricket World Cup, he went on to play the subsequent ODI series against India, wearing a special jersey numbered 301 in his 301st and final ODI in August 2019.

Twenty20 Internationals

Gayle's 117 against South Africa is the highest individual score by a West Indian at a T20 World Cup. He was named in the ICC T20I Team of the Decade in December 2020, and was included in the West Indies squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in September 2021.

Bowling

Beyond his batting, Gayle has taken over 200 international wickets with his right-arm off-break.

Twenty20 franchise cricket

Gayle is the only player to have scored more than 14,000 runs and hit more than 1,000 sixes in Twenty20 cricket. In the Indian Premier League, he was named the Most Valuable Player in the 2011 season and held the Orange Cap in 2012 as the leading run scorer of the tournament. On 23 April 2013, playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors India, he made 175 from 66 balls — the fastest century in T20 cricket at the time and the highest individual score in T20 history. He also equalled the record for the fastest fifty in T20 cricket while playing for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League.

Significance

Gayle's career spans the formative period of franchise Twenty20 cricket and the West Indies' two World Twenty20 titles. His combination of longevity in international cricket, statistical landmarks across all three formats and dominance in T20 leagues has made him one of the most recognisable figures of his era.

References