Gayle opted out of Chennai clash

Chris Gayle’s absence from the Royal Challengers Bangalore playing XI in Wednesday night’s match against Chennai has surprised many but his teammate Iqbal Abdulla has spoken of the real reason for his exclusion.

Gayle is usually one of the first picks in any Twenty20 line-up and his record underlines the reason behind that. In 198 Twenty20 matches, he averages 42.02 with a strike-rate of 146.88 – one of the best combinations in this format.

He’s the only Twenty20 cricketer to have reached the 7000-run mark and only one of two in the top 40 run-scorers to average more than 40.

The unbeaten 175 Gayle scored against Pune Warriors in the 2013 IPL is the highest individual score in T20 cricket as well.

So when Bangalore captain Virat Kohli announced Gayle had been replaced in the line-up, it surprised his legion of fans across the world.

Left-arm spinner Abdulla, who took two wickets in Bangalore’s defeat to the Super Kings, revealed Gayle had himself opted out of the match to preserve himself for the rest of the competition given the lengthy nature of the tournament.

"Gayle decided to opt out of the game, he wanted to keep himself for the future. Hopefully he will play in the games ahead," Abdulla said in the post-match press conference.

Interestingly, captain Virat Kohli offered no explanation about the decision not to play Gayle at the toss.

What made Gayle’s absence surprising was there was no mention of any injury by either the captain or the management. At the start of the season, Kohli had noted Gayle’s fitness was at its best he had seen for years.

Even Suresh Raina, man of the match in yesterday’s game for his blazing 32-ball 62, expressed surprise over the missing Jamaican.

"I was surprised that Gayle wasn't playing today," he said to the media.

At the end of Bangalore’s previous game against Mumbai Indians, Kohli had expressed disappointment at the start they had made. He must have felt every right to feel aggrieved given the Royal Challengers Bangalore were only 1-48 after eight overs chasing a target of 210 for a win.

Gayle was perplexingly slow. He used up 24 balls for his 10 before getting out, having been dropped twice earlier and in the end, that slow start seemed to have cost them the game.

While speaking to the host broadcaster at the end of that game, Kohli said his side should have performed better at the top of the order.

“We bank on our opening stand and the start we get, that's one area we need to improve in as well,” he said.

“We should have had a better approach in our batting. We need guys to play the way AB did, Wiese also backed himself and played positive cricket.”

Bangalore take on Rajasthan Royals in their next game at Ahmedabad and it will be interesting to see if Gayle decides to make himself available for that encounter.