Best IPL XI of the decade

Chris Gayle

Another automatic choice in the XI for this decade has to be Chris Gayle. He’s been a prolific run-scorer at the top of the order for whichever team he’s played for. Only two players have a strike-rate (players who have a minimum of 2000 runs) in excess of 150 in this decade and one of them is Gayle. In 118 IPL games since the start of 2010, Gayle has scored 4313 runs at an average of 41.87 and a strike-rate of 152.62.

In 2010, he was a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) set-up where he scored 292 runs at an average of 32.44. But it was from 2011 that he took off when he was called up as injury cover by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The Jamaican opener won the Orange Cap twice in a row – 2011 and 2012 and amassed 700+ runs in 2013 as well. He was the heart of the RCB line-up for seven years and amassed 3163 runs at an average of 43.33 for them.

However, in 2018, he almost went unsold before Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) bought him up at his base price. In two seasons, he’s been one of their consistent performers. Gayle has scored 858 runs at an average of 40.86 and has scored seven fifties and a ton.