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Chris-gayle
Sunil Gavaskar feels Chris Gayle should win the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Decade Award. In a recent edition of Cricket Connected, a show broadcasted on Star Sports, Gavaskar and Matthew Hayden had their say on the winner of this award. Both voted for Gayle to win the award.
Hayden felt that although Gayle has done wonders in Test Cricket, he has also exploited bowlers in the T20I format. Gayle has earned worldwide fame due to fantastic innings in which he smacked 333 runs in Test cricket. In 103 Test Matches, Gayle has amassed a total of 7214 runs. This includes an insane 15 hundred and 37 half-centuries as well.
When it comes to the T20I format, Chris Gayle has 1627 runs in total. In 58 T20Is, Gayle smacked 2 centuries and 13 half-centuries. His insane strike rate of 142.8 clearly shows how explosive Gayle has been in the T20I format.
Gavaskar backs Gayle to be the ICC T20I cricketer of the decade
Gavaskar was also asked to select his pick for this prestigious award. Unsurprisingly, he also voted for Gayle to come out on top. To back his vote, Gavaskar stated that West Indies have won 2 T20I World Cups. Gayle played a pivotal role in his national side’s triumph in the T20I World Cup in 2012 and 2016.
Owing to this, Gavaskar feels that Gayle should be honored with this award. To finish off, Gavaskar also stated that what Gayle scored in a match is what a whole team puts on the board in the T20I format.
In an IPL encounter between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors India, Gayle did the unthinkable. Gayle demolished the PWI bowlers, as he went on to smack an outstanding 175 in 66 balls. With a strike rate of 265.15, Gayle smacked an outrageous 17 sixes and 13 fours in his innings. His knock of 175 is the highest individual score in the history of IPL. Moreover, this is the highest score Gayle managed to score in any T20 format. RCB then went to put up 263 runs on the board. Pune only put up 133 runs on the board as RCB won by a huge margin of 130 runs.
The other nominees for the award are Kohli, Malinga, Rohit Sharma, Finch, Imran Tahir, and Rashid Khan. Even though Gayle is the favorite, he will receive competition from the likes of Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Lasith Malinga.