Write Chris Gayle Off at Your Own Peril, Says Windies Coach Stuart Law

Windies head coach Stuart Law has defended out of form opener Chris Gayle, and conceded the fact that experts and critics who are writing him off and suggest that his international cricket might be over to “write him off at your peril”.

Gayle scored just 38 runs in four innings during Windies’ disastrous tour of New Zealand where they lost the Test series 2-0, the ODI series 3-0 and the T20I series 2-0 with a solitary match getting washed out due to persistent rains.

Gayle missed out one of the ODI’s due to a reported virus. The southpaw was dismissed for a duck during his last innings on Wednesday against the Kiwis. He came to New Zealand immediately after scoring a brilliant 146 off 69 deliveries but following his lacklustre performances in New Zealand speculations started doing rounds that he might retire from international cricket to extend his career in different lucrative leagues around the world. However, Law feels Gayle has still a lot to offer to Windies cricket.

“Right now it probably doesn’t look like it, but there’s plenty of cricket left in the big man,” Law said. “He can destroy any attack, it doesn’t have to be a minnow. He’s central to the way this dressing room ticks and commands a lot of respect. He’s just got to start performing in the middle again.

“He didn’t click in this series. He had a viral infection in the one-dayers and, while T20 is probably his best format, he didn’t get the starts he wanted. He’s played this game long enough. He knows how to do it. He was pretty good in England a few months ago.”

Law further said that Windies’ performance in New Zealand was mediocre especially because of the absence of some top players who were key contributors to Windies lifting the T20 World Cup a couple of years back.

“It was a pretty disappointing tour,” Law said. “New Zealand played good, disciplined cricket but we fell short.

“We need to do a lot of hard work, planning and understanding. That means some soul-searching by looking in the mirror and asking if we gave it everything to change a game, get into a game and win a game.”

Here’s the Newsfeed:

Aditya Tare To Lead Mumbai In Zonal League; Shardul Thakur Back, Iyer Absent From Squad

Wasim Jaffer Feels He took the Right Decision by Opting to Play for Vidarbha