When Chris Gayle was slamming Zimbabwe, Rohit Sharma was out at a shopping mall. Thus, he did not see much of the innings.
Rohit, who holds the world record for the highest individual score in ODI cricket with a 264 against Sri Lanka at Kolkata, kept abreast of the happenings in Canberra via messages from friends.
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"I did not see much of the innings, but kept hearing about the knock," said Rohit, the only batsman to hit two ODI double hundreds.
Rohit saw only a bit of Gayle’s knock after returning to the hotel.
Till a little while back, Gayle was one of the three senior cricketers on the firing line of the West Indies Cricket Board, the others being Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. While Bravo and Pollard were dropped, Gayle was spared the axe.
All three players were at the forefront of the West Indies team pulling out of the India tour owing to payment troubles with the WICB.
With the double hundred, Gayle answered his critics in the best way possible. Along the way he also registered the fastest-ever double hundred off 130 balls, beating Virender Sehwag's record which came off 140 balls.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly called it a 'devastating' batting display.
India will play the Windies on March 6 in a Pool B World Cup match in Perth, and have already started preparing for Gayle.
Having noted that he takes a bit of time at the start of his innings, the Indian squad has planned to attack him straightaway with short balls, the same ploy used against Pakistan’s Younis Khan.
Gayle tries to make it up later in his innings, but India do not want to give him that opportunity.
The Indian think-tank has devised a plan whereby they will pepper Gayle with short-pitched deliveries and force him to go for the attack early on.
