Chris Gayle: Is the purple patch of the finest T20 player nearing its end?

Smashed it! That is a boundary.And this one goes out of the park! What a shot!Pulled away! that is another huge six!Six again! Wow, that is a scorcherAnd that is a full toss! Gone a long, long wayThis man is on a mission! And again, the ball has hit the boundary! What an incredible over!

Who is this man? During his stay at the batting crease, it is difficult to spot the ball on the field. It is either in the stands or terminated. The bowlers are left in line of fire and the crowd in the stands does the fielding. The match is all about his willow and he makes the pitch look like his backyard. And for the spectators watching the match on their televisions, his live innings seem like the highlight of boundaries. When he begins to fire, we know, the opponent has lost already. He is all about less running, more runs!

The swashbuckling batsman, who, not very far ago looked tailor-made for the T20 format, is now struggling to find his form. The Spartan Chris Gayle, (you didn’t need any more hints to guess him, did you?) who was once the biggest entertainment quotient of the Indian Premium League, is yet to win the Royal Challengers Bangalore a match with his heroics this season.

His stunning IPL career

Given his hitting power, he romanced the shortest version of the game like few others. He is the first player to have scored a century in Twenty20 international cricket; the only man to have scored seven or more tons in the shortest format; and is the leading six-hitter in the Twenty20s. The Spartan is all about brute force and power.

Gayle has been one of the biggest sources of extravaganza in the IPL. Before being picked by the Royal Challengers, he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders. His IPL resume of 3 years has been phenomenal.

In the year 2011, at a strike rate of 183.13, the run machine scored 608 runs off the 332 balls he faced in the 11 matches. The following edition, he returned as a deadlier version of his own. He hammered 733 runs off the 456 balls in 15 matches. This was the edition when he scored 7 fifties! The IPL of 2013 is fondly remembered for the record-breaking 175 not out by the hitter against the Pune Warriors. Gayle, at his best, had certainly conquered the IPL and the hearts of his fans.

IPL 2016 – reverse of form

Given his continuous purple patch for 3 years in the tournament, fans had worn their seatbelts already as they expected another stormy IPL from the Jamaican. However, the storm is far from coming and the drought of his big shots continues. In the four matches that he has played till Saturday, he has been able to score only 13 runs, only to be benched by skipper Virat Kohli.

Against Gujarat Lions, his tortured stay at the crease was brought to a merciful end soon, after having managed to score 6 off 13 balls.

The reason behind resting Gayle can be two. The primary one is his lack of form, of course. But also, the opening partnership between Kohli and Gayle partnership does not seem to click well. While the former wants to make most of the runs between the wickets, the latter is a slow-runner and thus, chances of a run-out prevail. For fans of Chris Gayle, it is not just the current IPL which has been a matter of worry. The batsman wasn’t at his devastating best even during the World T20. Although he began his world cup campaign with a century, the following scores of 4, 5 and 4 were just the beginning of his grey patch.

The main issue troubling the star player seems to be his lack of movement. Given his terrific strike rate, the batsman hardly needs to run between the wickets. But when he is unable to dispatch the big shots, taking singles and doubles becomes the need of the hour, which he is unable to deliver. Also, he bowls only occasionally and has not made any contribution with the cherry either.

The main concern of the fans at the moment is – is the fearsome era of Chris Gayle over? Too soon to decide, maybe. Royal Challengers have 5 more matches to be played this season and if for nothing else, the RCB hero needs to resurrect himself at least for those thousands of fans who throng the Chinnaswamy stadium each year in hope of the long-awaited cup.

Until then, “Gayle is a Champion, don’t forget!”

At some point, every great man has been made to look ordinary in our sport. Chris Gayle is going through that.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 14, 2016

Gayle gone. 8th consecutive single-digit score since his 100* vs Eng. Never got more than 3 single-digit scores in a row in T20s before.

— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 14, 2016