England vs West Indies, 3rd ODI: Chris Gayle “good to go”, reckons Jason Holder

Chris Gayle missed out on the second ODI versus England due to hamstring.

Chris Gayle is “good to go” for Sunday’s third ODI against England, according to West Indies captain Jason Holder. The star batsman suffered a hamstring injury while warming-up shortly before the toss in Thursday’s second ODI in Nottingham — his 38th birthday. It turned out to be a good match to miss, with only 2.2 overs bowled before rain led to a no-result washout that left England 1-0 up in this five-match series. But the big-hitting Jamaica left-handed opener is now set to be available as West Indies look to draw level in Bristol this weekend.

“I think Chris is good to go…I think the last game was more precautionary than anything else. He seems to be raring to go,” Holder told reporters before West Indies’ training session at the County Ground on Saturday. “It’s good to have him back. We hope we can have him for the duration of the series”, he added. Gayle has scored over 9,000 runs in 265 ODI innings, including 22 hundreds, at an average of more than 37 and with a strike rate in excess of 85. He only arrived in England for the white-ball leg of West Indies’ tour, having effectively made himself ineligible for the preceding 2-1 Test series loss by not not taking part in domestic First-Class cricket in the Caribbean.

Gayle gave glimpses of his renowned boundary-hitting ability with a quickfire 40 in West Indies’ win in the lone Twenty20 at Chester-le-Street last Saturday — a repeat of their 2016 World T20i final win over England in Kolkata — before following that up with a rapid 37 during a seven-wicket defeat in the first ODI at Old Trafford on Tuesday.