'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle rings the bell at the Eden Gardens to start IPL match

The ‘Universe Boss’, Chris Gayle has set the stage on fire in the 2018 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with back to back explosive innings. To think that we may have had to witness an IPL without the mighty Caribbean had the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) not roped him in at the very last moment of the auctions. On Saturday, Gayle rang the bell at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata to kick off the 18th match of the season.

Gayle is universally acknowledged for his hard-hitting skills and has several records to his name. The star batsman has previously played for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Owing to his lack of form in the 2017 season, teams hesitated to pick him in the 2018 auctions. It was on the second day of the 2018 auctions that the Preity Zinta-owned franchise chose to buy Gayle at his base price of INR 2 crores.

Chris Gayle starts the match at the Eden Gardens in style

The regal stadium at Lords, London has the custom of a bell being rung on the first day of a Test match to mark the beginning of the game. A similar tradition is followed at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata and the current president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Sourav Ganguly likes to have eminent cricketers ring the bell. On Saturday (April 21), it was Gayle who did the duty with his signature flourish and a wide grin on his face, marking the commencement of the high-octane clash between KKR and KXIP.

Here’s a video of Gayle ringing the bell at the Eden Gardens:

A very special guest to start off proceedings at the Eden Gardens today. @chrisgayle333 on the job #VIVOIPL #KKRvKXIP

A post shared by IPL (@iplt20) on Apr 21, 2018 at 3:34am PDT

Although the 38 years-old Jamaican is considered to be on the last leg of his career, his batting firepower is anything but extinguished. He slammed his 6th IPL hundred against the Sunrisers Hyderabad only a couple of days back, leading his team to a 15-run victory. Prior to that, he had recorded his second fastest IPL half-century, when he took just 22 balls to reach the figure in the match against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Currently, Chris Gayle has 3842 runs in 103 IPL innings, at a massive strike rate of 152.40. His destructive form this season must be like a throbbing wound to the RCB, who chose not to retain him this time around, following his dismal performance in IPL 2017. Recently, Gayle jokingly commented that Virender Sehwag has saved the IPL by choosing to rope him in for KXIP.