How to tackle Chris Gayle in T20’s

Life of the bowler is always impenetrable, when they bowl to Chris Gayle. It’s always impossible to find a solution, against a batsmen, who has unbreakable records in this format. Overall, he has 17 centuries and 91 sixers to his name. He has 7447 runs in 185 innings at a strike rate of 153.28, since 2011. His aggregate of 7447 is 3025 better than the second highest, his average is more than five runs better than the next best. Let’s see the few areas where the big West Indian always struggles.

Chris Gayle is not a batsmen like Virender Sehwag or Adam Gilchrist, who strikes from ball one. Initially, he tries to adapt to the conditions and give utmost respect to the bowlers. This is clearly evident against England, where he concentrates on singles and doubles in the starting period. You can’t give those luxuries to Gayle in the initial periods.He knows that if he stays long, even the target excess of 200 looks miniature. Against England Moeen Ali was terrific in his first three overs, but in the final over, the English spinner was treated just like a another victim.

If you are a bowler, who looks to contain Gayle, then you are under serious trouble in the later stages. This is what the inexperienced English bowlers did against the Jamaican rather than to get him out.

Off-spin a major weapon against Gayle

If you see in the IPL, Gayle was ousted by the off-spinners, many times. He struggles against a turning ball, spinning away from him. The Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and Ashwin have been successful against Gayle in numerous occasions. The veteran Harbhajan has dismissed Gayle 4 times in T20’s, conceding only 54 from 59 balls. Ashwin has dismissed him 3 times for 50 off 60 balls. The Pakistani all-rounder Mohammed Hafeez, who has been banned from bowling in international matches for 12 months, has got him four times for 17 runs in 30 balls. These spinners just flights the ball in the air and make sure the ball dosen’t hit the deck, where Gayle is waiting to swing the bat. Many times, they pitch the ball in the good length areas that doesn’t allow the West Indian to free his arms. Gayle is not a man, who uses his feat much. When he hit the ball, it stays hit. He usually likes the ball to be pitched up and targets the long-on and long-off regions. Occasionally, when the bowler bowls short, he targets the mid-on and square leg areas. The off-spinners needs to push the ball in the good length regions, to make him play the cut shorts and lofted drives in the off-side.

Most of the teams looks to operate with the leggies against Gayle. This is the worst option to go against a powerful man like Chris Gayle, who will be waiting to hit the ball turning into him. This is the main reason, why the promising Adil Rashid hasn’t been successful against the Caribbean master in Mumbai. His strike rate against left-arm spinners is 243.16 since 2011.

You can’t say the off-spin is the best method to stop the man who has 8826 career runs to his name. But, this is one of the few things that works really well against Gayle.

Written by Pragadeesh Shanmugam