The TNPL managed to rope in arguably the game’s biggest stars in Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle to travel to Chennai to promote the league. While in Chennai, spoke about a number of wide ranging topics, from the evolution of Test cricket to the performances of his RCB teammate KL Rahul.
In an interview with the Times News Network, when probed about the connection between the two formats of the game, he responded saying, “Firstly, T20s have changed the way Test cricket is played today. When you look at any day's play, 180-200 used to be scored earlier in a day in Tests. Today one gets to see scores close to 300 being hit and that's happened due to the advent of T20s. Test players who play T20s develop skills to score runs quickly. David Warner is a good example of that and that's how myself or even Virender Sehwag have scored a lot of runs in Tests”
Chris Gayle is one of the most successful players in both the formats of the game. In Test cricket, he has amassed over 7000 runs with two triple-centuries to boot, while he is the undisputed champion of the T20 format. It is a miracle that he has scored nearly 10000 runs in T20s with 18 centuries, it almost reads like an ODI record.
He was also asked to comment on the contrast between the Windies’ performance in T20s and Tests. While they are world champions in the shortest format of the game, their struggles in Test cricket are all too apparent.
“When I look at both formats of the game, I feel we fail to concentrate for longer periods of time (in Tests). This has been the case since the time I made my debut under Brian Lara. We only play (quality) cricket for short sessions and we win a session here or there. And then, we switch off and that's why we tend to lose a lot of Test matches. Having patience and batting for long sessions is something that's been lacking (in West Indies Test team). That's not the case in T20s as we have the experience and the talent to go the distance. With regards to me playing Tests -yes, it's a possibility. The talks are on and we will have to wait and see what happens.” he said.
At 36, the Jamaican is entering the twilight of his career and will be hoping for one final swansong in Test cricket as well.
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