Anything you can do
I can do it better
I’m the toughest
(I’m the toughest)
And I can do what you can’t do
You’ll never try to do what I do
I’m the toughest
(I’m the toughest)
Peter Tosh — I’m the Toughest
Christopher Henry Gayle, the 41-year-old Jamaica and Windies cricketer, is not only cricket’s “universe boss” but also the Windies’ “runs machine.”
Gayle played for the West Indies at the youth international level before making his first-class debut in 1998 at age 19 for Jamaica.
He played his first One Day International eleven months later in 1999, and his first Test match six months after that.
Since then, he has not looked back, and his career is legendary, and today, he is fittingly called the “universe boss.”
The fact is his record below speaks for itself:
- Highest run-scorer for the West Indies in ODIs
- Second most sixes in a calendar year. (56 in 2019)
- Second West Indies player (after Brian Lara), and 14th overall, to pass 10,000 runs in ODIs
- First batsman to score a century in each of international cricket’s three formats of the game
- First (and so far, only) batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket, a double century in ODI cricket, and a century in T20 internationals
- Highest six-hitter for the West Indies. (in all formats)
- Most centuries by a West Indian. (25)
- First batsman to score a T20I century, in the 2007 World T20. He’s also the only batsman to score two World T20 tons
- First batsman (now equaled) to score a T20I century in both winning and losing cause and when batting first as well as when batting second
- Gayle is the only player to score centuries in ICC U19 World Cup, ICC World Twenty20, ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy as well as in ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
- In World Cup 2015, he hit the fastest ever ODI double century, against Zimbabwe, off 138 balls
- Third batsman to score a century against eleven different countries in ODIs
- First international player to carry his bat through a completed inning (one where his side lost all ten wickets) in Twenty20 International. He is also the only player to carry his batin both Tests and T20Is
- Fastest ODI fifty by West Indies batsmen. (50 runs in 19 balls)
- Leading run-scorer in ICC Champions Trophy history (791 runs)
- Most runs in a single ICC Champions Trophy series (474 runs)
- Most sixes in International cricket (515)
- Second most sixes in T20I (103)
- Most sixes (39) in a bilateral ODI series (4 Innings vs England in 2019)
- The first player to hit all 6 balls in an over for four in Test cricket
- The first player to hit the first ball of a Test match for six
- Along with Marlon Samuels, he holds the record for the highest ever ODI stand for any wicket (372 runs for 2nd wicket)
- Along with Devon Smith, he set the record for the highest opening stand in ICC World T20 history (145)
- Most number of sixes hit by an individual at Cricket World Cup history (40)
Domestic T20
- Leading run-scorer in all forms of T20s (13,296 runs – as of April 2020)
- First batsman to score 10,000 Twenty20 runs in a career
- Most T20 centuries (22). As of September 2020, Gayle is the only player to score more than 8 T20 centuries
- Most IPL centuries (6)
- Fastest Batsman to score 4000 runs in IPL
- First and only batsman to hit 300 sixes in IPL
- Highest individual score in T20 with 175* (off 66 balls) against Pune Warriors India, which he made as an opener.
- This inning also set the record for the fastest century ever in T20 cricket, taking 30 balls
- Highest score by a player in T20 in a losing cause (151*)
- Highest individual score by a cricketer in a T20 league final (146*)
- Joint record, along with Yuvraj Singh and Hazratullah Zazai, for the fastest T20 half-century, in 12 balls
- Most number of sixes in a T20 inning (18) during the 2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League
- First Batsman to hit 1000 T20 sixes.
Gayle, in his most recent outing, after batting his team in sight of a probable playoff, his IPL KXIP captain KL Rahul gave the following ringing endorsement:
“He’s [Gayle is] a huge part of our dressing room, and not just only for the runs he puts up on the board and the consistent performances he keeps putting game after game and year after year. To have someone like that around is very, very inspiring. He’s somebody who everybody loves in the dressing room. He keeps the dressing room very positive. We love having him around, and to see him batting the way he is batting. No one will ever say he is 41; he still looks as fresh as when he first burst on the IPL scene for RCB. He’s hitting the ball as sweetly as he was back then. That’s a great sign for us.”
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