A Gayle with grace

The new mould: Gayle mixes attrition with aggression © Getty Images

It's a metamorphosis that has not come a day too soon and could well coincide with the upswing in West Indian prospects in the run up to the World Cup just six months away.

Reticence at the crease is not normally what you associate Chris Gayle with. His calling card all along has been a casually imperious batting style - if you can see the ball, you hit it, nay murder it. And then there are the flamboyant sunglasses, ear-rings glistening in the sun, gleaming white shoes and the colourful coiffure, all adding to his cool dude image.

Of course only time will tell whether it's a journey to maturity or merely an aberration, but in the DLF Cup in Malaysia so far, he has seemed a man transformed, blending austerity with indulgence, and tempering his game to the demands of the situation.

In the first match against Australia he was happy to play the role of a passive non-striker while the normally placid Shivnarine Chanderpaul went ballistic. Gayle was lolling on 8 when Chanderpaul flew past his fifty. It was only after Chanderpaul had rattled the Australians, Gayle got in to the act to press home the advantage. His treatment of Mitchell Johnson, the man who would go on to dismiss Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, was, well, typically Gaylesque.

At one point, Gayle spanked three fours and smoked a six in five balls from Johnson. The first ball is full and on the stumps, and Gayle waves it over mid on. Johnson switches his line to outside off, and Gayle biffs it flat and fast over cover for six. The next one is a length ball, which Gayle pats back to the bowler. Perhaps encouraged by it, Johnson repeats the delivery. Mistake. Gayle backs away and carves it over point. Inflamed, Johnson mutters away, but Gayle merely stares on. Next ball, Gayle backs away again, Johnson fires a ball on the middle to cramp him, Gayle goes cleanly through the line and the ball flies past the mid-off fielder and into the long-on fence. Ponting takes Johnson off the attack. Contest over.

In the second match against India he smoked a 35-ball 45. Not much of a contest though. In recent times an imposter has gone under the name of Irfan Pathan while RP Singh was erratic on that day. Gayle made them bleed 36 runs in 22 balls. The test came on Monday when West Indies met Australia for the second time. Australia piled up 272 and West Indies, yet again, had to chase under lights at the Kinrara Oval. Once again, Gayle switched his tempo according to the demands of the moment. He was cautious to begin with, and then broke free but when Brian Lara imposed himself in the proceedings, he retreated to the non-striker mould.

The pundits, while acknowledging his talent, have always insinuated that he lacked 'attitude'. Ricky Skerrit, West Indies' manager during tour of England in 2000, wrote about Gayle in his end-tour report thus: "A combination of his laid-back attitude and his medical condition caused him to exhibit a somewhat sluggish and often arrogant approach to his preparation and to how he conducted himself in general." Not so long ago, during the Super Series matches Gayle was asked where he wanted to field and replied: "First slip, nowhere else." Arrogance or the confidence of a man arrived? Peter Roebuck, who reported that story, thought it was the first.

The signs from the first two games in the DLF Cup have been promising. If he can show the same adaptability in the remaining two games of the tournament and help West Indies win tournament, he would have gone some way towards a new beginning.

What they said
"The way Chris bats, he plays as he sees it. Someone's got to go at some stage, and [Stuart] Clark happened to be the unlucky one. We knew we had to keep scoring at five or more runs an over throughout. We were a bit behind at the beginning and Chris accelerated in the middle overs." Brian Lara sure is impressed.

"It can be really hard to stop that sort of batting at times, no matter who you bowl or what fields you set, when you're on a roll, as Shiv [Chanderpaul] was, and with Gayle joining in." Ricky Ponting at what it meant to be at the receiving end.

What he said
"I tried not to give away my wicket and decided to stick around so that things will come easy at the end. I'm a slow starter, I take a couple of overs, but if the ball is in the slot I'll definitely take advantage of it."

"I really want to be taking my game to the next level now. I'm ranked 11th in the ICC's one-day batting rankings at the moment, but I aim to break into the top five over the next few months and eventually get to number one."