What if Wednesday | What if KKR had retained Chris Gayle in 2011
Ahead of the IPL Mega Auction in 2011, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) decided to go for the ultimate revamp, retaining no players, meaning that they lost out on the services of Chris Gayle. Gayle eventually went unsold in the auction, but what if KKR had decided to instead retain the Jamaican?
The IPL Mega Auction in 2011 marked the birth of a new era in the competition, for it saw teams revamp themselves and start afresh in an aim to win the tournament. One such team that let go all of its players from the first three seasons was Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), whose owner Shah Rukh Khan had envisioned building a dynasty under the leadership of the then-Indian vice-captain Gautam Gambhir. What this meant was letting off the big West Indian Christopher Henry Gayle who, as we know, bafflingly went unsold in the 2011 auction, before being snapped up as a replacement player for Dirk Nannes by Royal Challengers Bangalore. The rest, as they say, is history. But what if the Knight Riders had instead decided to retain Gayle in 2011?
Days ahead of the Mega Auction in 2011, the Knight Riders announce that they will be retaining Chris Gayle - their only player retainment for the season - for a sum of $1,800,000. The auction goes according to plan for the Knight Riders, who snap up the big signing of Gambhir, alongside their other targets - Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan and Brett Lee. However, they miss out on one identified target of theirs, young wicket-keeper batsman Shreevats Goswami, and hence they decide to steal a like-for-like replacement right under the nose of Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Parthiv Patel.
Patel is expected to open alongside Gayle at the top, but the left-handed West Indian’s towering presence has Gambhir change his mind and hence the Delhite instead decides to slot in right-handed Manvinder Bisla at the top-order. The move turns out to be a masterstroke as Bisla kick-starts IPL 2011 with three consecutive fifties, even outshining Gayle, but the ‘outshining’ does not last long as Gayle marks his retention with a stunning 55-ball century against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens to leave Sourav Ganguly & Co shell-shocked.
But wait, Sourav Ganguly & Co? Yep. A season-ending injury to Dirk Nannes meant that RCB hurried their way to pip Pune Warriors to sign Sourav Ganguly, of all people, as a replacement for the Aussie.
Back to the RCB camp, the energy within the team is upbeat for the initial few days after the signing, with Ganguly seen as nothing more than a mentor, but things turn ugly as on April 17, 2011, the management announces Ganguly as the new captain of the club, stripping Vettori off captaincy. The move infuriates Vettori, who leaves India mid-way through the competition, only to never return again. This also means bad news for Dilshan who, after a duck against CSK at Chepauk, is used as the sacrificial goat to accommodate a 38-year-old Ganguly.
Ganguly liking the look of 20-year-old Mayank Agarwal means that the youngster, despite a string of low scores, gets an extended run in the team, but him failing to make use of the chances sees wicket-keeper Arun Karthik instead get drafted into the side. The exit of Dilshan has also paved way for South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw, who goes on to form impenetrable bonds with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the middle-order.
Ganguly’s captaincy is marked by defeat against KKR, but RCB bounce back in extraordinary fashion, winning each of their next six matches. The Bengaluru-based franchise’s march towards the IPL title is propelled by 25-year-old Karthik, who accomplishes the astonishing feat of carrying his bat in six consecutive games, taking his average for the season to 235. But Karthik isn’t the only wicket-keeper who is breaking new ground in the competition, as in the Eastern Part of the country, Manvinder Bisla, too, has scripted history, becoming the first player in IPL history to score back-to-back tons. Magical campaigns for Bisla and Karthik mean that the duo astoundingly find themselves opening the batting together against England for India four months later, in the second ODI at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
Anyway, back to IPL 2011, with four games left in the group stages of the competition, KKR and RCB are convincingly placed at first and second position respectively, but despite the table suggesting otherwise, things are not so smooth in the Southern part of the country. His form aside - having scored 18 runs in 6 games at an average of 3.00 - Ganguly has also been clashing internally with vice-captain Kohli, who has been visibly left irked and baffled by some of the decisions taken by the former Indian skipper, including dropping Zaheer Khan to accommodate Abhimanyu Mithun. The duo’s altercation hits an all-time low post RCB’s game against Kochi Tuskers at the Chinnaswamy, a match where the Reds succumbed to a 22-run defeat thanks to a Prasanth Parameswaran four-wicket haul after which, Kohli publicly questions Ganguly’s decision to chase on a damp wicket.
Livid at being publicly called out, Ganguly drops the ultimate bombshell in RCB’s next encounter, leaving Kohli, the orange cap holder at that moment, out of the side, but this ends up having dire consequences for Bangalore as they finish the group stages with back-to-back defeats, barely managing to qualify for the play-offs by the thinnest of margins. With the play-offs soon approaching, there are growing concerns over the team morale of RCB, and on the eve of their eliminator game against Chennai Super Kings, coach Ray Jennings announces that the management has collectively come to the decision of sacking Sourav Ganguly as captain, handing over the reigns of captaincy to the estranged youngster Virat Kohli.
An unbeaten 158-run stand between AB de Villiers and Rilee Rossouw in the eliminator against CSK and a sublime three-wicket haul by Syed Mohammed in the Qualifier 2 against Mumbai at Chepauk sees RCB book their place in the final, setting up a date with Kolkata Knight Riders, who are on a six-match winning streak.
The date is May 28, 2011, and out walk Kohli and Gambhir leading their respective teams, knowing that there will be a first-time IPL champion crowned on the day. With the floodlights taking full effect, the wicket looks like an absolute batting paradise, but Kohli bizarrely opts to bowl first, stating at the toss that he wants to allow his batsmen take full advantage of the dew at night. The decision turns out to be a blunder, as both Gayle and Bisla rip Zaheer Khan and Charl Langedevldt to shreds, racing off to 50/0 in just 2.4 overs, after which skipper Gambhir and debutant Eoin Morgan score quickfire fifties each to propel KKR’s score to a mammoth 238.
RCB’s fight, in response to KKR’s 238, lasts all of three overs as a double-strike from left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat sends both Kohli and de Villiers back to the hut, before a suicidal Rilee Rossouw run-out completely ends their hope. Eventually, RCB succumbs to a 128-run defeat, the heaviest in the history of an IPL final, and as the KKR squad invades the Chepauk, Kohli is on his haunches in the dug-out, hiding his face with his cap, unable to fathom what had just happened on the night. And just as Kohli breaks down in tears, a mystical figure is seen wrapping hands around the youngster’s arm, uttering the words, “It’s okay, Virat. You will learn. You are not the first person to make the wrong decision at the toss in a big match.”