Carry his bat, carry his team, leading by example, majestic innings, captain’s knock, patient, batted for the team, composed, committed, sensible, solid, looked interested, good defence, waited for bad ball, played to the match situation, ran singles and played a proper test innings.
Not words or phrases – I would suggest – you would associate with a Chris Gayle test innings.
Remarkably on the 4th day of the 2nd test from Adelaide thats exactly what happened. Chris Gayle played a proper, patient test innings as he carried his bat to an undefeated 165 out of a total of 317.
If someone told me Chris Gayle scored a test century against Australia, I would assume it would be a ‘one day type knock’. The sort of innings where he just tee’s off and the ball flies to all parts of the ground until eventually he succumbed to one shot too many.
No, how wrong could I be. Gayle played an innings totally out of character, he waited for the bad ball, ran his singles, realized the importance of the situation and batted in a manner I have never seen before. He actually looked interested.
A far cry from the man who turned up in presence only and who made it clear he didn’t want to be in England earlier this year, in fact his attitude was a disgrace in England and I believe he should have been sacked as captain.
What has brought about this change in attitude I don’t know, but the Chris Gayle we have seen this week is impressive. For West Indian and world cricket in general, lets hope it continues.
