Wisden overview
A thrusting Jamaican left-hander, Gayle earned himself a black mark on his first senior tour - to England in 2000 - where the new boys were felt to be insufficiently respectful of their elders. A duck on his only Test appearance of the summer didn't help. But 945 runs at 63 in the following Busta Cup season won him an opener's berth for South Africa's visit to the Caribbean. Facing up to Donald and Pollock, Gayle and Wavell Hinds made an unlikely pair, more Billy Whizz than Boycott, but Gayle started the series with a juicy 81, his first Test fifty, in the draw at Georgetown. Loves to carve through the covers off either foot, and bowls brisk non-turning offspin, which was good enough to win him a one-day match award on that England tour. Simon Briggs

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