Champions Trophy 2017: Chris Gayle believes form of Indian batsmen won't affect their tournament chances

Most of them have not exactly been consistent during the ongoing IPL but West Indies swashbuckler Chris Gayle feels Indian batsmen have enough firepower to unsettle oppositions during the upcoming Champions Trophy. Virat Kohli (308 runs), Kedar Jadhav (267 runs) and Yuvraj Singh (243) – the trio, who are set to form an integral part of the Indian middle-order, have not had a great T20 league. [caption id=“attachment_3414852” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Given Virat Kohli’s stature, he ended with a mediocre average of 30.80 in the IPL. Sportzpics[/caption] But Gayle feels it will have no bearing on the Champions Trophy. “The good thing about T20 cricket is that it’s a very quick format compared to ODI cricket, where you can give yourself a chance to bat a bit longer. It gives you more time to get set. With IPL pushed aside now, they (Kohli, Jadhav) will have enough time to regroup,” Gayle told PTI in an interview. “If the Indian top-order batsmen get set, we all know how dangerous they can be. We all look forward to that. Forget about the current IPL form, all of them are match winners. “Everybody will be eager to become a standout man to win the tournament for their team. They will be hungry to prove a point,” Gayle sounded upbeat about India’s chances terming Pakistan as another team to watch out for. But Gayle also had a word of caution for the Indian team about the fickle English weather (Birmingham and London), which can change the conditions. “I am not a ‘Weather Man’ to tell you about the sort of climate you will get but little experience that I have had playing cricket in England over the years, you can get five different kind of weather conditions in a single day. “It can get very, very tricky. Weather will play a huge role in places like Birmingham,” said Gayle. Talking about Kohli, Gayle was a bit empathetic considering the kind of pressure he was in during the RCB’s wretched campaign. “You feel for Virat when he has to put forth his views at post-match presentations when the team loses so consistently. You can see he is at loss for words. What reason can he give match after match?” he asked. “But then he knows that he is the leader of the pack. But when a team loses, we are all in it. All I can say is that we would like to put up a far better show next time round,” the self-proclaimed ‘Universe Boss’ said. Gayle also spoke about how the Chinnaswamy Stadium track also became a major factor in the process. “Yes, it was a factor. The Chinnaswamy track was relaid and the drainage system became better. It soaked all the water and the pitch became dry. Now, Chinnaswamy is a traditionally 180-plus wicket where 140 became a winning score,” Gayle said. On a different note, Gayle is happy that Sunil Narine has added a different skill-set (role of an opener) with such stupendous success. Narine has scored 214 runs at an astounding strike-rate of 178.33. “To be honest, he is one guy who has turned it around as a cricketer. Some teams (franchises) tried him as an opener and it worked for KKR. You can’t deny he has been under scrutiny for his action. “He came back with a remodelled action. But once people play him more, more accustomed they are to his style of bowling. So it’s something where you can say, ‘Yes’ his batting can give him confidence with his bowling as well. As a spinner, he is still most economical in T20,” said Gayle.