Chris Gayle in line to join 10,000 club before retirement
The West Indies opener, who will bow out of ODIs after this summer’s World Cup, has 9,727 runs to his name in the format.
Chris Gayle takes on England with the chance to reach 10,000 runs in one-day internationals before he leaves the format behind later this year.
The big-hitting opener, now 39, has announced he will retire from ODI cricket after this summer’s World Cup – but before that he needs just 273 runs to become the 14th man, and the second West Indian after Brian Lara, to reach five figures.
Here, Press Association Sport takes a look at how Gayle measures up to the “10,000 club”, as well as his record against England.
Chasing Lara
With five matches against England and a tri-series with Ireland and Bangladesh, the World Cup and warm-up games to follow before he rides into the sunset, Gayle – who averages 37.12 in ODIs – will have hopes of overhauling the great Trinidadian.
Passing Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan (10,290) and then Lara would take Gayle to 12th on the all-time list, which appears the limit of his ambitions – the next two batsmen in his sights, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, are still playing and then comes another Indian, Rahul Dravid, over 1,000 runs ahead of Gayle on 10,889.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Jacques Kallis and Sourav Ganguly are the other players in the exclusive club, with the latter making it five Indians among the 13 players.
Gayle’s ODI average is lower than all but Jayawardene (33.37) and Jayasuriya (32.36) but he would rank sixth in strike rate at 85.82 – a list headed by Kohli at 92.58 – and has hit more sixes than any of the 10,000 club.
Favoured opponents
Zimbabwe are his favourite opponents, allowing him 1,549 runs at an average of almost 62, with 11 half-centuries and three hundreds in 30 innings. His 1,241 runs against India look almost certain to be surpassed by his tally against England before the upcoming series is over.
He has made two hundreds and six fifties against England, with a best score of 132 not out at Lord’s in 2004. Only Zimbabwe and Australia have been on the end of more half-centuries from Gayle, who has seven against the latter.
