Undoubtedly, Christopher Henry Gayle. The Universe Boss has been worth every single penny for their franchise.
So far Chris Gayle has been a part of 3 IPL teams.
- Kolkata Knight Riders
- Royal Challengers Bangalore
- Kings XI Punjab
Gayle played for the first time in 2009 for the Kolkata Knight Riders. And he was quite impressive too. He continued his form in 2010 as well. But, then KKR committed a huge blunder. They let Chris Gayle go away assuming that he won't be available for the 2011 IPL because of his international commitments.
His stats were impressive standing at 463 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 141.59. For a player who was invested with ₹10 crores in 3 years these stats were not bad at all.
- Unsold at the auction
IPL can be crazy. Despite such brilliant stats Gayle went unsold at the 2011 IPL. But, it wasn't over for him yet. RCB had roped in Dirk Nannes at a whopping cost of ₹3crores. RCB had a poor season and needed a good replacement, since Gayle was at a base price of ₹ 1.8crores he was demeed fit. And this was where the fortunes of RCB as well as Gayle changed.
- The Rampage
Chris Gayle went on to hit a century in his first match for RCB against KKR. Within 2 weeks he hit another hundred vs KXIP. RCB was unstoppable and Gayle single handedly took them to finals scoring a whopping 608 runs which included 2 hundreds and 7 fifties.
His golden run with the team continued and he was retained by RCB in 2014 for ₹7.5 crores. Him along with ABD and VK were the batting pillars of RCB.
From 2011 to 2017 Gayle played a total of 115 matches for RCB where he scored 2795 runs which included 4 hundreds and 16 fifties at a phenomenal strike rate of 136. Such a performance for ₹ 40 crores over a period of 6 years is worth a penny.
But in 2018 RCB decided to let go of Gayle. And the next phase was going to begin!
- Same old same old
Just like 2011, Gayle was almost unsold in 2018 until Kings XI Punjab purchased him on his base price of ₹ 2 crores. Many thought that Gayle has now aged and his power was over. But he was the same old. Him along with KL Rahul were the most destructive pair for KXIP.
Yet again Gayle hammered the opposition with same brute. For KXIP till 2020 he played 31 matching amassing 1146 at a scintillating rate of 146.7 which included 2 tons and 10 half-centuries. Again ₹ 6 crores for 3 years and you get such excellent results.
In true sense Gayle has been a consistent T20 performer which hasn't disappointed his franchise ever. Gayle has been the perfect worth for his franchise every season.