Published: Mar 21, 2015, 11:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 21, 2015, 11:55 PM (IST)
Wellington: A recurring back injury will certainly keep Chris Gayle out of the upcoming home Test series against England, but the destructive West Indies batsman insists that he is not retiring from any format of the game.
West Indies today bowed out of the cricket ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 after losing to New Zealand by 143 runs even after Gayle hit a 33-ball 61. Gayle, who has been struggling with a back problem, missed a couple of games in the quadrennial extravaganza but certainly wants to feature in next year’s World T20. Read: New Zealand vs West Indies, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 quarter-final highlights
“Definitely want to play the T20 World Cup next year for West Indies, there’s no doubt about that,” Gayle told ESPNcricinfo.
“I’ve got a few concerns and a few injury (cases) to try and solve. I’ll give myself some time and hopefully look back at it and see how well I can actually progress for West Indies cricket at this point in time. Read: New Zealand downplay West Indies mauling ahead of semi-final
“I’m actually out of the Test series, the back won’t hold up for that format at this point in time. But I haven’t retired from any format as yet. As I go on I will keep informing WICB about my progress in the future with West Indies cricket,” he added.
Gayle, whose record individual World Cup score of 215 against Zimbabwe was surpassed by an unbeaten 237 by Kiwi opener Martin Guptill, said that the Caribbean side did well to reach the knockouts.
“I thought we played some great cricket. Yes we missed [Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard], but I thought we did well.
We had a good all-round team, and the guys played some crucial innings for us,” Gayle said. Read: McCullum labels Guptill’s 237 ‘unforgettable’
“It was a situation where you look at it, we reached a quarterfinal, anything could have happened, you just need two good games.”
Chasing a mammoth 394 for a win in the last-eight encounter, the West indies were bowled out for 250 in 30.3 overs but Gayle still took out some positives from the loss. Trent Boult becomes leading wicket-taker in World Cup
“You chase 390 runs, psychologically it will affect your batters, but if we actually had a better plan or structure chasing these sort of targets, it could have helped us in some sort of way. World Cup cricket semi-finals: Round-up
“[We were bowled out for] 250 with 19 overs to go, that goes to tell how dangerous we can be, but just to get the mindset right and get a hold of everything and the players to actually believe we can make these things happen.”
