Chris Gayle picks his top 3 T20 players
West Indian superstar Chris Gayle has picked India's white-ball vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Caribbean all-rounder Andre Russell and dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran as the top 3 players for his T20 XI.
Chris Gayle, who is currently plying his trade for the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League, picked these names in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo.
Rohit Sharma is the 2nd highest run-scorer in T20Is with 2773 runs to his name. In 108 T20Is, the right-handed batsman averages 32.24 and flaunts a brilliant strike rate of 138.79. He is the only player to have scored 4 tons in the shortest format.
Chris Gayle's second pick Andre Russell is arguably the biggest game-changer in T20 cricket. The swashbuckling all-rounder strikes at 151.26 in T20 internationals and has an average of 20.
His numbers go to another level when he bats in the lucrative but challenging Indian Premier League. Russell has a strike rate of 182.33 in the IPL, with 129 sixes and 105 boundaries to his name.
25-year-old Nicholas Pooran showed his T20 class in IPL 2020 while playing for the Kings XI Punjab. In 14 matches, Pooran scored 353 runs at a strike rate of 169.71, propelling his team to respectable totals in almost every game.
Chris Gayle picks his favorite cricket ground to hit sixes
Chris Gayle, who has a mind-blowing 1003 sixes to his name in T20 cricket around the world, picked his favorite ground to hit maximums in the same interview. The former Royal Challengers Bangalore opener plumped for the franchise's home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Chris Gayle has tallied over 4700 runs in the IPL. 1561 of these have come at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The 41-year-old has made 3 IPL tons and 8 IPL fifties at the same ground. Bangalore's small boundaries were also witness to Chris Gayle's record-breaking innings of 175*, which comprised of 17 sixes.
He will be back in action for the Punjab Kings in IPL 2021.