Chris Gayle

The arrival

Chris Gayle's first IPL season was 2009, with Kolkata Knight Riders, a signing made outside the auction.

That first season brought 7 matches, 184 runs and 1 wicket at 7.65 an over. The best was still to come.

The peak

The high point with the bat was 2012, for Royal Challengers Bangalore: 733 runs at an average of 61.1, striking at 160.8 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 123.7, with 1 hundred and 7 fifties, and a highest score of 128 not out. There were five seasons of 400 runs or more in all (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019).

Measured against the league around it, though, the most destructive season was 2011: 608 runs at a strike rate of 183.1, 62 runs per hundred balls quicker than the IPL as a whole that year.

With the ball, the best season was 2011, for Royal Challengers Bangalore: 8 wickets at 6.72 runs an over, while the league's bowlers went for 7.51, with best figures of 3 for 21.

Franchise by franchise

2009 to 2010, Kolkata Knight Riders. 16 matches, 476 runs and 5 wickets.

2011 to 2017, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Arrived outside the auction. 84 matches, 3,175 runs and 13 wickets.

2018 to 2021, Kings XI Punjab. Bought at the 2018 auction for ₹2 cr. 41 matches and 1,346 runs.

3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Royal Challengers Bangalore, 2011 to 2017.

Bat, ball and method

Across the career, Chris Gayle struck at 149.3. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 127.7, so Chris Gayle scored about 22 runs per hundred balls faster than the typical batter of the time. 76% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 408 fours and 359 sixes, more sixes than anyone else in IPL history.

The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 43.7% of the balls Chris Gayle faced were dot balls, a higher share than 93% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 9.3 balls, the 7th-best rate in that group, and a four every 8.2.

With the ball, 18 wickets in 557 deliveries, at 7.85 runs an over against a league rate of 7.63 for the same seasons: 0.22 an over more expensive than the typical bowler of the time.

32.5% of the balls Chris Gayle bowled were dots, a lower share than 75% of the 150 bowlers with 500 balls or more; a wicket came every 30.8 balls.

The fielding record: 30 catches.

At the auction

Chris Gayle went under the hammer three times, bought twice and left unsold once. The highest price was ₹3.20 cr (US$800k), paid by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008, more than 3 times the base price. Unsold in 2011, Chris Gayle was bought again in 2018 by Kings XI Punjab. Being bought did not always mean playing: no match followed for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.

The legacy

On the all-time IPL lists, among 810 players, Chris Gayle finished 11th for runs, 1st for sixes and 2nd for player-of-the-match awards.