Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have opted against retaining Windies star batsman Chris Gayle for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
There were serious doubts that the 38-year-old West Indian would be among the three players retained by RCB when the franchises released their list of protected players on Thursday.
When the list was finalised the T20 record run scorer was indeed omitted, with the team opting to keep Indian captain Virat Kohli and South African superstar AB de Villiers along with the uncapped Sarfaraz Khan.
Although the big left-hander will now head to the auction block for the January 27 IPL draft in Bangalore, he could still be retained under the franchise’s Right to Match (RTM) option, but that option also seems unlikely based on the player’s recent form and injury troubles.
Gayle, who was drafted in 2011 by the Bangalore franchise, had a subpar last couple of seasons where he played 19 matches in total and only managed to score 447 runs. The player was shockingly left out of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) last year but rebounded with a strong performance in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) where he led Rangpur Riders past Dhaka Dynamites in the final. Gayle scored 146 runs from just 69 balls. It was an innings glittered with 18 sixes, a world record for the number of sixes in a T20 match.
The batsman, however, also failed to spark during the Windies tour of New Zealand, but was afflicted by illness at the start of the tour. (Sportsmax)
