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Paul Stirling and Chris Gayle (Source: Twitter)
West Indies opener Chris Gayle has come down hard at the modern-day openers. He feels they are ‘killing entertainment’ in T20 cricket with their cautious approach in the powerplays. The big-hitting opener, who is currently playing the Abu Dhabi T10 league said the 10 overs format is setting new standards when it comes to aggressive and explosive batting at the top.
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Gayle, who has been playing the T10 league for quite a while has adopted a fearless approach in the game’s shortest format. He is getting off the blokes pretty quickly and laying the perfect foundation for the middle-order batters. He feels T10 cricket is raising the bar consistently.
“I think, with T10 cricket, that’s how T20 cricket started. From the first over, batters used to go but T20 cricket has slowed down dramatically and T10 cricket has now raised the bar a bit," Gayle said in a statement.
The West Indian opener said that opening batters are not taking risks to score more runs in the powerplay which is taking the charm away from the game's shortest format. “They’re killing the entertainment in T20 cricket, straight up, because in those first six overs, we can get more as openers but guys are taking their own time.
“Sometimes they bat to get a score and they take away from the fire they should be bringing to the batting department in the first six overs, but T10 is spot on and hopefully, we’ll see more T10 coming around."
The veteran opener feels when T20 cricket started in 2004-05, the batters were going from ball one but of late, the opening prefer to start slow. Gayle concluded by saying that the top order batters should play more fearlessly and entertain the audience.
“I don’t know why batters get so cagey during the first six overs. When T20 cricket started, guys were going from ball one, if you really check the history of T20 cricket looking back on it.
“I don’t like that fact, I think we should go hard, keep the entertainment that is within the game of T20 cricket and continue to keep that aggression in the first six overs.