Adrian Barath happy to see Chris Gayle back in team

West Indian opening batsman Adrian Barath has welcomed Chris Gayle’s return to the national side, saying that ‘it’s great’ to have the belligerent batsman back in the One Day International (ODI) setup.

Gayle was formally recalled into the national squad for the upcoming one-day series against England. The two sides are currently head-to-head in the three-match Test series.

The Caribbean Kings are under tremendous pressure following their 2-0 defeat in the series, but Barath hoped that with Gayle’s comeback, the side will be in better position to beat the Englishmen in the ODIs.

"We always welcome players into the set-up. He’s been in the set-up for years and everyone has respect for Chris. It’s great to have him back and he’ll lend experience to our players. We’re looking forward to having him in the set-up and everyone will learn
from him," said the 22-year-old batsman.

He added, "Having Chris in our team (makes it) a really solid team. The depth in our batting – with Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, the Bravos (Dwayne and Darren), Marlon Samuels, Andre Russell – once we get going in the powerplay it would be difficult to
say how could we not chase a big score or set one. So once we get it right, we have a good ODI team and we’re working on getting there in Tests, also."

Gayle was last seen in national colours in the ICC World Cup 2011. Soon after the mega event, Gayle found himself in a conflict with WICB. After an exile of 15 months, the great batsman has been called back into the team.

Chairman of selectors Clyde Butts is also delighted to see the left-hander back in the setup. He described that Gayle will bring a ‘quality dimension’ to the team.

He said, "We are now moving into the next phase of the development of the team as part of building our ODI side for the 2015 World Cup. A number of players, who have been exposed to international cricket, have been retained as they have performed well.”

“There is, what we believe, is a balanced combination of young rising players like Sunil Narine in the bowling department and Johnson Charles in the top order of the batting in addition to the well-known senior internationals."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Jun 6 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry