The legendary West Indian batsman Chris Gayle has finally arrived in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being benched in the first five games and missing the last two due to sickness for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
Coming in at No 3, Chris Gayle took his time initially getting used to the pace of the pitch, also since it is not his favoured batting position. After being at 6 (14), Gayle finally broke his shackles by hitting two sixes in the 13th over of KXIP’s innings, bowled by Washington Sundar.
After that, he smashed three more sixes on his way to a half-century providing a match-winning contribution to KXIP’s total, before getting run-out on the penultimate ball of the innings.
Former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar took to Twitter to express his pleasure seeing Gayle back and scoring runs, but he also wrote, “ Wonder what Kings XI Punjab were thinking by leaving him out all this while.”
Gayle was due to play for Kings XI Punjab’s sixth game of the tournament against the Sunrisers Hyderabad last Thursday, 8 October, but fell ill due to food poisoning and was admitted to a hospital. Thus, he missed a couple of more games after not featuring in the first five.
Kings XI Punjab on the back of that win are still at the bottom of the points table and have to win every game from here to have a shot at qualification for the play-offs. After losing a few games on the trot, fans and experts have wondered why was the charismatic Jamaican batsman not featuring in the KXIP line-up, but they heaved a sigh of relief seeing Gayle back on the field and amongst the runs.
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