In the glorious 15-year history of IPL, fans have seen many star players, including Indian icons like M.S. Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah, as well as foreign celebs like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Warner, Lasith Malinga, Dwayne Bravo, Ab de Villiers, and Kieron Pollard etc.
Undoubtedly, these players have played vital roles in making the IPL the world’s richest franchise cricket league tournament. Therefore, it is quite challenging to identify the Greatest Player of All Time (G.O.A.T.) among these superstars. Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper and legendary spinner Anil Kumble was also asked to pick the undisputed G.O.A.T. of the IPL
The iconic spinner took a while before naming West Indies’ superstar Chris Gayle as his choice. It’s worth noting that during the four years that Gayle played for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the lucrative tournament, Kumble was the team’s head coach.
“There are plenty of them; it’s difficult to pick just one. I can certainly look back and say probably Chris Gayle, someone who is larger than life. The way he came across as a player! What he brought to RCB and the way he sorts of changed the whole powerplay and the power he brought to batting,” said Kumble during a Q&A session on JioCinema.
Notably, in 2009, Gayle began his IPL journey with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) before shifting to RCB in 2011, where he remained until the 2017 season. After that, the Universe Boss went with Punjab and continued playing for them until 2021. The southpaw accumulated a total of 4965 runs, which currently ranks him as the seventh-highest run-scorer among all batters.
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