Chris Gayle IPL 2022 team: The Universe Boss has not registered his name in the upcoming IPL mega auction to happen in February.
Advertisement
The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League is not so far away. Ahead of the event, a mega auction will take place in Bengaluru on 12 and 13 February. This time there will be a total of 10 ten teams will be participating in the tournament. Apart from the existing eight teams, Lucknow and Ahmedabad are the new franchises this season.
All the existing eight teams have announced their retentions, whereas the two new franchises have also signed three players each ahead of the auction. Ahmedabad have signed Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, and Shubhman Gill, whereas Lucknow have signed KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, and Ravi Bishnoi.
A total of 1214 cricketers, 896 Indians, and 318 overseas players have signed for the Auction. Some notable exclusions from the list are Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Sam Curran, Mitchell Starc, and Chris Gayle. Stokes and Root will play County Cricket in England, whereas Starc has not played the IPL for the last seven years.
Chris Gayle IPL 2022 team
The exclusion of Chris Gayle is a huge surprise for the fans. The Universe Boss has been a star of the IPL since its inception. He has been a part of Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Punjab Kings in his IPL journey. Latest, he was playing for Punjab Kings in the IPL 2021.
Chris Gayle has scored 4965 IPL runs at an average of 39.72, whereas his S/R has been 148.96. He has scored 6 centuries, whereas he also has 31 half-centuries under his belt. With 357 sixes, he is the highest six-hitter in the history of the Indian Premier League. Gayle is also the 7th highest run-scorer in the history of IPL. He also won the orange cap in 2011 and 2012 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Notable Absentees from Mega Auction List.
1. Mitchell Starc
2. Sam Curran
3. Ben Stokes
4. Chris Gayle
5. Jofra Archer and
6. Chris Woakes
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) January 22, 2022
However, the Universe Boss is at the twilight of his career. He played just seven games in IPL 2020, whereas he was not impressive in 2021 as well. In IPL 2021, he managed to score just 193 runs in 10 games. Even at the International stage, he has struggled this season. Recently, Gayle played in the Abu Dhabi T10 League.
Whatever happens, Gayle is a T20 legend. He has scored 14321 T20 runs at 36.44, with 22 centuries under his belt. He is already 42 years old, and we have seen the last of Chris Gayle in the Indian Premier League.
