Kochi: West Indies were dealt a big blow on Thursday after their star batsman Chris Gayle suffered a hamstring tear in his left leg during the first ODI against India here, and the visiting team skipper Dwayne Bravo said it was the “worst” thing to happen to them on the current tour.
Gayle has been ruled out of the remainder of the three-match ODI series after he sustained the injury while making a desperate dive to save himself from a run out chance.
He was later carried out of the ground in a stretcher.
“Losing Chris (Gayle) is the worst to happen to us on the tour. He is our best player,” Bravo said at the post-match press conference.
“He is no longer available for the series and that is a big blow for us. Psychologically, also it is not good for us. Before we landed in India, we lost Kieran Pollard and now we lost Chris and they are two of our best players.”
Asked about his team’s performance, Bravo admitted that a score of 211 in 48.5 overs was not good enough to defend.
“The pitch is the same for both the teams. I think we lost the momentum. The India bowlers are good and they have applied themselves well. 211 was not a good enough total for a team to win an ODI. Our batters did not perform to our expectations. We have to work on our batting,” the West Indies skipper said.
“I thought we were about 40 runs short. We had a good start even though we lost our star batsman Chris Gayle early. Johnson Charles and (Marlon) Samuels put up a good stand.
“We were on our target but we lost wickets and could manage only 211,” Bravo said. (PTI)
