Somerset have signed Chris Gayle – arguably the most destructive batsman in world cricket – as their second overseas player for this year’s Friends Life t20 competition.
The county moved swiftly to recruit Gayle after Kieron Pollard had to pull out of his deal to join Somerset due to West Indies’ tour to England in May and June.
If Somerset could have picked any individual in the world to replace Pollard, it would have been his fellow West Indian, who scored 86 runs off 46 balls against them while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in last year’s Champions League t20 in India.
The 32-year-old Jamaican, who has most recently been playing for Sydney Thunder in Australia’s Big Bash, is also an effective off-spin bowler in addition to having a batting strike-rate of 152 in Twenty20 cricket.
Brian Rose, Somerset’s director of cricket, said: “We are bitterly disappointed that Kieron cannot return this summer, because he has done so well for us and he has fitted into our side beautifully.
“But, at the same time, we had an immediate opportunity to sign Chris, and if Kieron was going to be unavailable, I can think of no better player to come into the side and replace him.
“Chris is a fantastic acquisition for us, a hugely exciting player who gave us a first-hand exhibition of what he can do in the 20-over format when we played against him in India.
“I think he will fit wonderfully well into our side and he will be great for our spectators, who love to watch exciting cricket.
“Personally, I think he would get into any World T20 XI, and after having a player of Kieron’s calibre, we are now very fortunate to be in a position to bring in Chris.”
Somerset could potentially field a Twenty20 batting line-up of Gayle, Marcus Trescothick, Craig Kieswetter, Roelof van der Merwe, Pete Trego and Jos Buttler, with mainstays such as James Hildreth, Arul Suppiah and Nick Compton also vying for selection. But Rose is wary of Kieswetter and Buttler being called up by England for the one-day internationals (
16, 19 and 22 June) and Twenty20 international (24 June) that have prevented Pollard from returning to Taunton.
“One of the reasons for signing Chris is that, potentially, we could lose Craig and Jos to the England side in one-day cricket,” said Rose. “They could be away for a few of our T20s games, so we wanted to limit the potential impact that would have on our squad.”
Left-hander Gayle, who has appeared in 91 Tests with a top-score of 333, is now better known as one of the most celebrated Twenty20 cricketers on the planet.
He has scored five centuries – with a top-score of 117 – and 19 fifties in his 86 Twenty 20 appearances and averages more than two sixes per game. He is also a handy bowler, taking 47 wickets at 31.34, with an economy rate of 7.47.
Gayle said: “I am delighted to be heading to Somerset this summer. They are a great club and, hopefully, I can make a key contribution to their T20 campaign this year.”
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