Chris Gayle played for RCB from IPL 2011 to 2017.
He scored 19,594 runs in 483 West Indies international matches, including 42 hundreds in all three forms. Nonetheless, his IPL exploits for RCB will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most significant periods in the T20 league's history.
He then went unsold in the IPL 2011 auctions and sat out of the tournament. However, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) suffered an injury setback mid-season when Dirk Nannes got injured, and they called Gayle to replace him, and the rest was history.
"In 2011, when I got a call, I was at a nightclub in Jamaica. Whatever happened with the breakdown with West Indies Cricket, where I was not even selected for a home series against Pakistan. Coming from a World Cup loss and then having an injury too. I was very disappointed. So, long story short, I was at a nightclub, and at that time, I wasn't playing any cricket,” Gayle said on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast.
"I got a call. It was Vijay Mallya and Anil Kumble. They asked me if I was fit. I was like, 'Is this for real?' I said, "Yes, I am fit." They said, 'If you're fit, what we need you to do is go to the embassy tomorrow and get the visa.' But I said tomorrow is Saturday. They said, 'Don't worry about that. Just turn up.' I turned up the next day, got my visa, and then took my flight, and you know, Easter started from that time," he added.
Though Gayle couldn’t win any IPL title with RCB, his time with the franchise proved to be legendary. He scored 608 runs in IPL 2011 with two centuries and repeated his performance in IPL 2012, scoring 715 runs and winning the Orange Cap for the second time. In total, Gayle played 142 IPL matches and scored 4,965 runs with six centuries and 31 half-centuries to his name.