IPL 2018: Gayle has justified our faith and shown why he is the Universe Boss, says Brad Hodge

Kings XI Punjab head coach Brad Hodge said that Chris Gayle rose to the occasion as he showed why he is the Universe Boss. Chris Gayle has scored 252 runs thus far in the four matches. The T20 King has gathered scores of 63, 104*, 62* and 24 in the season.

Chris Gayle was picked in the final stages of the Indian Premier League auctions by Kings XI Punjab at his base price of INR 2 crores. The Windies batsman has proved to be worth the value for the Punjab side.

Consequently, the southpaw batsman has been instrumental in the success of the Punjab franchise. Ravichandran Ashwin led team is in the third place after winning five matches from the seven they have played.

Brad Hodge said while talking to CricketNext. “To be honest, picking Gayle was a decision we made during the course of the action. When you have someone of his experience available, you don’t really think twice. And he has justified our faith and shown why he is the Universe Boss. He has been brilliant for us and accepted the challenge that lay in front of him with both hands. It is this attitude that separates legends from the others. He will only get better as the tournament progresses”.

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Other than Gayle, one more batsman has stood out for the Punjab side and it is their wicketkeeper opening batsman KL Rahul. The Karnataka batsman has scored 268 runs in the seven matches.

The former Australian batsman added that the team had a talk with Rahul before handing him over the role of wicketkeeping. Rahul has thus far done a decent job behind the stumps as well.

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“We had spoken to him before going ahead and assigning him the job behind the wicket. He was more than keen to double up and with us already clear that we wanted KL to keep wickets, we didn’t feel the need to have another keeper in the squad. Also, his inputs to captain R Ashwin has been nothing short of brilliant. As far as his performance with the bat is concerned, we expect this sort of a show from one of the best youngsters in the business,” he added.

Punjab head coach further added that they had made up their mind that they wanted someone like Ravichandran Ashwin to lead them before the auctions. Ashwin has justified his role as the leader of the side.

“Once we got him at the auction, we were certain that we wanted Ashwin to lead the side. Just like Ashwin likes to do his homework going into a game, we had done our homework and thought that we wanted someone like him to lead this unit from the front. He is very intelligent and reads the game well. Also, he has been exceptional when it comes to guiding the young forces in the team. In the past, KXIP has had situations wherein there has been a change of captain midway in the season. We didn’t want that this time round,” he explained.

Kings XI Punjab has had a good first half of the league and they would like to carry their work in the next half. With five wins in the seven matches, the Punjab franchise has taken the right steps forward towards making their way into the playoffs. KXIP will now take on reigning champions Mumbai Indians in their own back backyard on May 4.

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