Indian Premier League (Indian T20) 2021 team Punjab Kings (PBKS) have announced that the star batsman and T20 legend Chris Gayle has left their biosecure bubble citing fatigue. Gayle has taken this decision to leave the Indian T20 2021 tournament in order to strengthen his preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup, in which he will be playing for the Caribbean side.
In a statement released by Gayle, who had played in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2021 as well just before the second leg of Indian T20 2021, he said he wanted to be mentally fresh for the challenges ahead of the Cricket T20 World Cup 2021 which begins on October 17 and will conclude on November 14.
Gayle said, “Over the last few months, I have been a part of the CWI bubble, CPL bubble followed by the Indian T20 bubble, and I wish to mentally recharge and refresh myself. I want to refocus on helping the West Indies in the T20 World Cup and would like to take a break in Dubai. My thanks to the Punjab Kings for giving me the time off. My wishes and hopes are with the squad always. All the very best for the games coming up.”
The most successful T20 batsman in the world, Gayle has had a busy year 2021 playing T20 cricket for four separate teams — the West Indies, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and now Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (Indian T20).
A statement released by the Punjab Kings informed that Gayle will remain in Dubai before joining the West Indies team ahead of the T20 World Cup next month.
Punjab Kings head coach Anil Kumble said, “I’ve played against Chris and have coached him at Punjab Kings and all through the years I’ve known him, he has always been an absolute professional and we as a team respect his decision and desire to prepare himself for the T20 World Cup.”
In 10 matches of Indian T20 2021, Gayle scored 193 runs at an average of 21.44 and a strike rate of 125.32 with the highest score of 46. The left-handed aggressive batsman Gayle, who holds the record of hitting most sixes — 357 — and the highest individual total of 175 not out in the Indian T20, is currently at the 7th spot in the overall list of most successful batsmen in Indian T20 history.
In 142 matches played for teams such as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Gayle has scored an overall 4,965 runs at 39.72 with 6 centuries and 31 half-centuries. He has got his runs at a strike rate of 148.96, hitting 405 boundaries and a record 357 sixes along the way.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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