Kings XI Punjab have played six matches so far this IPL season but West Indies star Chris Gayle has been missing from their line-up in all the fixtures.
On Thursday, KXIP Director of Cricket Anil Kumble revealed that he was supposed to make his season debut in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad but got ruled out due to food poisoning.
During the game, Kumble told the commentators, "Chris Gayle was going to play today's match but he is sick. He is down with food poisoning that's why he isn't in playing eleven."
With teams only allowed to play four overseas players, Gayle would probably have been picked to play ahead of Aussie all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who has struggled to find form this season. But with him being ruled out Maxwell did play and could only score 7 runs off 12 balls before he was run out during KXIP’s chase.
Recently, the team’s batting coach Wasim Jaffer too had told news agency PTI that Gayle would be part of the team soon. "It (comeback of Gayle) should happen soon. As I said, it needs to happen sooner than later. We don't want to bring them when every game is a must-win game. Hopefully, we will have those guys featuring soon," he had told PTI.
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