WT20: Dilshan, Gayle eye glory at familiar venue

Having strut their stuff for RCB in IPL, both Chris Gayle and Tillkaratne Dilshan will play pivotal roles in determining fortunes of West Indies and Sri Lanka in Bangalore

Bangalore: The ground staff and the handful of spectators at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium were jostling to take a selfie with Chris Gayle.

Windies’ Dwayne Bravo (left) and Chris Gayle train during a practice session at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday. pic/PTI

The big Jamaican knows how to play to the gallery, and, here too, he did not disappoint the fans.

Gayle is familiar to Bengaluru crowd, courtesy his on-going stint with the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Tillkaratne Dilshan

His hundred against England at Mumbai the other night would only have pushed his popularity graph northward.

A couple of hours later, veteran Sri Lankan batsman Tillkaratne Dilshan too came for practice session. He is an RCB alumni too.

The opener single-handedly powered Sri Lanka to a win over Afghanistan a few days ago. But the 39-year-old went through the training almost unnoticed. A few groundsmen shook hands with him, perhaps, renewing the old ties. But that’s it. No autograph seekers. No selfie-crazed fans.

But the difference is just in their capacity to attract attention. Today, both Gayle and Dilshan will be pivotal in determining the fortunes of the West Indies and Sri Lanka. There was this customary effort from Darren Sammy to drive home the virtue of collective effort.

But Sammy could not shrug off the hope of another Gayle storm. “Chris has played in IPL in Bangalore. So, this is his home. Not just Chris, many of us have played here during the IPL. So, we know the conditions. But again, we can always hope of Chris continuing in the same vein. We are all excited about it.”

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