Gayle presence crucial to ODI side, says Holder

LONDON, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder hopes to have talismanic opener Chris Gayle available to the Caribbean side for a while yet, following his positive contributions on and off the field in the ongoing five-match OneDay International series.

Veteran Gayle struck an entertaining half-century in his second one-day innings on Sunday following a two-year break, as West Indies went under by 124 runs to England in the third One-Day International in Bristol.

Holder said Gayle had brought his many years of experience to bear positively on the squad and said this knowledge would continue to be valuable to the Caribbean side going forward.

“He is always a relaxed guy but if you go to him you would be surprised the amount of information you get from him,” Holder told reporters.

“I have been privy to having some chats with him in the last few days and it has been wonderful. He shared a lot of information that has helped me out a lot on the field.”

He continued: “It’s really good to have a guy like him on the field playing for you. Hopefully his body would allow him to carry on a lot longer and we can have him in the dressing room for a longer period.”

Prior to the current series Gayle had not played an ODI for West Indies since the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand because of Cricket West Indies controversial eligibility rules.

With CWI relaxing those rules, however, Gayle became available for selection and has had an almost instant impact.