Reasons why Chris Gayle was snubbed by PSL franchises

The most shocking part of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 3 draft that took place in Lahore yesterday was Chris Gayle not attracting any interest from any of the six franchises. The left-handed West Indian power hitter who many believe is the greatest T20 batsman of all time has been drawing huge prices from the franchises in the other T20 leagues around the world, but the PSL franchises chose to overlook him.

As surprising as it may sound, there are certain factors which have worked towards this snub. First and foremost the fact that he has been re-involved in the West Indies set-up means he may be out playing for the Caribbean team in February-March, the period during which PSL is scheduled to be held.

But his fans must not fool themselves into believing that the lack of availability was the only reason why Gayle could not fetch a contract in PSL 2018. There is more to it.

“Not the same force anymore”

“We were told that Gayle is partially available so that was one of the reasons. But even if he was available, we would not have picked him because he is no more the Gayle force he once was,” one of the team owners told Wisden India on the condition of anonymity.

Now that’s alarming for Gayle and that may be a sign of things to come. People are clearly not rating him as highly as they did earlier and that may reduce the value of his brand in the T20 industry which is expanding ever so quickly.

It’s not that Gayle can’t play T20 cricket anymore, he surely can, he can still hit them big, but his problem is the time that he takes to get into his groove. He is always slow to get off the blocks at the start of the innings and while that is not a problem for him personally as he can make up for it later on with big shots, it hurts the team’s momentum.

Gayle’s case is a little bit like that of MS Dhoni in the Indian middle order. Dhoni’s personal strike rate is still alright, so is Gayle’s, but the dot balls that they play early on act like an obstacle to the team’s flow. The batsman at the other end, even if he is hitting the ball well, doesn’t get the strike that often which adds to his frustration and it results in a poor or a manufactured shot causing his downfall.

Time to introspect

While individual brilliance plays a big role in cricket, it’s still a team game at the end of the day and if the playing style of a certain player is making it difficult for the other members of the team, no matter how good that player is individually, the team is better off without him.

Gayle, if he has to extend his career as a T20 freelancer, will have to give it a proper thought and will have to rediscover his old mojo, otherwise he may struggle to earn contracts in the other lucrative T20 competitions as well including the IPL.