Twitter Reactions: While everyone was waiting for the Gayle Storm, KXIP rest Chris Gayle

It has been an incredible Indian Premier Leauge (IPL) for Kings XI Punjab and more than that for their opener Chris Gayle. He wasn’t picked in the IPL 2018 auction twice, no team put up a bid at his base price Rs 2 crore for the most successful T20 batsman. When his name surfaced for the third time Preity Zinta raised the paddle and KXIP bought him as the last player of the auction.

He was benched for the first couple of games, it looked tough for the big man to find a place in the starting XI. But with Ravichandran Ashwin and Virender Sehwag among the decision makers, a surprise is never a surprise. They drafted in Gayle for the third match against Chennai Super Kings and Ashwin said they wanted to exploit CSK’s vulnerability with the new ball. The 38-year-old responded to the call and responded with a match-winning 63.

He won the Man of the Match and made sure the world knew the Universe Boss wasn’t done yet. In the following match, Kings were playing Sunrisers Hyderabad. Considered to be the best bowling lineup in the league SRH attack looked toothless against the Jamaican. He scored his 21st T20 hundred and 6th in the IPL. Gayle was unbeaten on 104 and Kings XI once again took the match, needless to say he was the player of the match.

In his third match this season against Kolkata Knight Riders it was his quickfire unbeaten 62 that helped KXIP get to a score where the DLS implementation favoured his team and they won their 4th match in 5 games.

When they were slated to take on a rather feeble Delhi Daredevils most fans expected the Gayle storm to continue. But captain Ravi Ashwin surprised everyone when he revealed that they had decided to rest the opener who was carrying a niggle. Twitterati couldn’t understand what was the basis for this decision.

Here are some of the best reactions:

Match without @henrygayle is like celebrating Diwali without crackers!!! #DDvKXIP

— Davis India (@vijay_davis) April 23, 2018

seriously??? replacing @henrygayle with @AaronFinch5 ??? well done @lionsdenkxip …

— sannith (@SannithDS) April 23, 2018

Sir @virendersehwag we know you are from Delhi but that doesn't means you can't see @DelhiDaredevils getting hit by @henrygayle #DDvKXIP #KXIPvDD

— Shubham Solanki (@shubham2266) April 23, 2018

Rip team management @lionsdenkxip ?? for taking #finch ? instead of #ChrisGayle#DDvKXIP #KKRvDD #KXIP

— Mitesh Baria (@MiteshBaria4) April 23, 2018

Without @henrygayle , today's match is useless. Despite being in such a good form, Team management dropped him out of the team. #DDvKXIP

— Kolkata Knight Riders (@Love_YouSRK) April 23, 2018

The worst decision of resting @henrygayle in today's match resulted in 2 runs from finch @lionsdenkxip

— Abhishake Peyyeti (@URS_Ab) April 23, 2018

No @henrygayle ?? …will miss his sixes…kotla ke chote ground PE jabar mara hota…. #DDvKXIP

— Pranay (@kadampranay11) April 23, 2018

Without @henrygayle this match like Test Cricket

— Ranju Ghosh (@RanjuGhosh11) April 23, 2018

Have @lionsdenkxip gone mad? Where is @henrygayle ? #DDvKXIP

— Shubham Solanki (@shubham2266) April 23, 2018

Universe Boss @henrygayle is sore, not playing tonite. Can't get better than this for Delhi

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 23, 2018

#ChrisGayle rested?! Was relying on him winning me more money being top batsman ?? #IPL ?

— Ben Pearce (@Ben_Pearce21) April 23, 2018

Ravi Ashwin might end up axing KL.Rahul in the next game in order to open along side Chris Gayle as he is so unpredictable!!#DDvKXIP pic.twitter.com/Ws5YzQdEM0

— BrainFaden Smith (@brainfadesmith) April 23, 2018

[interaction id=”5addf0118063237c335f6daa”]