Wiaan Mulder's decision to declare South Africa's innings when he was batting on 367, just 33 runs short of equaling Brian Lara's world record for the highest-ever individual Test score of 400, has stirred debate in the cricketing world.

Former West Indies skipper Chris Gayle, who has two Test triple tons to his name, also shared his two cents on the same, saying that Mulder "panicked" and "blundered" by not going for Lara's 400 against Zimbabwe in the second Test.

Mulder, who surpassed Hashim Amla's 311* to register the highest score by a Proteas batter, rose to fifth in the all-time highest scorers list in a Test innings. His was the highest score by a batter away from home, bettering former Australia captain Mark Taylor's 334* against Pakistan.

Mulder notched up his triple century off 297 balls, which was the second-fastest in Test history behind Virender Sehwag's all-time record off 278 balls against South Africa in Chennai.

Mulder had the golden opportunity of overtaking Lara's 400*, but he decided not to, citing that this record should stay with the Caribbean legend.

"If I could get the chance to get 400, I would get 400," Gayle said on talkSPORT's Hawksbee and Jacobs.

"That doesn't happen often. You don't know when you're going to get to a triple century again. Any time you get a chance like that, you try and make the best out of it. But he was so generous and said he wanted the record to stay with Brian Lara. Maybe he panicked; he didn't know what to do in that situation,” he added.

Moulder also opened up on his conversation with South African head coach Shukri Conrad, who told him, "Let the legends keep the big scores."

Gayle said you would never become a legend if you don't want to be one. "Come on, you're on 367; automatically, you have to take a chance at the record. If you want to be a legend, how are you going to become a legend? Records come with being a legend.

"I think it was an error from his side, not to try and go to get it. We don't know if he would go on and get it or not. But he declared on 367 and he said what he had to say. But listen, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get 400 runs in a Test match. Come on, youngster, you've blown it big time!"

According to Gayle, the opposition doesn't matter in Test cricket. A record is a record and scoring against any team is difficult at the Test level.

"It's the same cricket, Test cricket," Gayle said. "Sometimes you can't even get one run against a team like Zimbabwe if you want to put it that way. It doesn't matter the opponent, if you get 100 against any team, that's a Test century. If you get a double or triple, 400, that's Test cricket. That's the ultimate game."

The Universe Boss once again emphasized that Mulder panicked and blundered. "Like I said, he panicked and he blundered, straight up."

Mulder, however, had a remarkable start to his Test captaincy. After South Africa declared their innings at 626/5, they bowled Zimbabwe out for 170 in the first innings. The hosts were asked to follow on and were bowled out for 220 in the second innings as South Africa won the match by an innings and 236 runs.

Besides his 367* with the bat, Mulder also claimed three wickets with the ball and took the winning catch.