Chris Gayle's 100th Test
Gayle's Test journey in pictures
Chris Gayle's Test journey began against Zimbabwe in March 2000. He scored 33 and a first-ball duck. A few months later, Gayle was picked for his first tour of England and although he played just one Test - scoring a duck - he did well in the eight tour games. His first Test hundred came a few months later - 175 against Zimbabwe•Getty Images
The big hundreds apart, Gayle has also courted controversy. One of the earliest instances took place in March 2003, when he was dropped from the first two home Tests against Australia for violating an eligibility rule that demanded he play domestic matches in the West Indies to be considered for selection. Recalled to the side, with West Indies trailing 2-0, Gayle struck twin fifties in the third Test but West Indies went down by nine wickets. Here, Gayle is bowled for a first-ball duck in the fourth Test. The year 2003 was a lean one for Gayle, he ended it with 312 runs from seven Tests. •Getty Images
In March 2005, Gayle was one of the four players dropped from the West Indies squad for the first Test of the home series against South Africa for having contracts with a rival company of the national team's sponsor, Digicel. In the second and third Tests, he made 12 runs but the fourth Test of the series, in Antigua, saw a special knock. Gayle scored his first triple hundred which, at the time, was West Indies' fourth-highest individual score in Test cricket. West Indies put up a mammoth 747 to draw the game. •AFP
The first of those three hundreds came in the first Test against England on his home ground of Sabina Park. His 193-ball 104 helped West Indies secure a 74-run lead before Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn skittled England for 51•AFP
Gayle had a quiet summer in 2010 but hit a low in his career when he was axed as captain before the tour of Sri Lanka. In his three-year captaincy career, Gayle scored 1528 runs in 20 Tests at an average of 47.75, significantly higher than his career average of 42.01. He led the side to victory in three of the 20 Tests he captained, lost nine and drew 8 games. •AFP
Gayle made a return to Test cricket in the home series against New Zealand and made a statement straightaway, slamming 150 and an unbeaten 64 in the first Test in Antigua. His knocks helped West Indies canter to a nine-wicket win and the home side went on to win the series too. •DigicelCricket.com/Brooks LaTouche Photography
Patchy form followed Gayle's maiden hundred but the knack for big innings came to the fore again in the home series against New Zealand in 2002. Fighting to level the series, West Indies were boosted by Gayle's 204 in the second Test in Grenada. His first hundred runs came off 212 balls before he accelerated to bring up the next hundred in 115. West Indies, however, couldn't push for a win and ended up losing the series 1-0•Getty Images
Gayle began 2004 - his most productive year in Test cricket - by slamming the ninth-fastest Test hundred against South Africa in Cape Town. His hundred took just 79 balls and he was eventually out for 116 off 120 balls, his first century on a maiden tour to South Africa. His 107 in the fourth Test couldn't save West Indies from a 3-0 drubbing•AFP
Gayle took over as Test captain on West Indies' tour to South Africa in December 2007. He started off his stint with a win in Port Elizabeth, to which he contributed 66 and 29. It was West Indies' first Test win in 31 months and South Africa's only loss at home to the visitors in their modern Test history•AFP
In keeping with Gayle's tendency to court controversy, he found himself in a spot when he landed in England barely 48 hours before a Test, having opted to stay back for his IPL commitments. A few days later, in an interview, Gayle said he wouldn't "be so sad" if Test cricket died out•Getty Images
Gayle put that axing behind him, roared back into form with 333 against a hapless Sri Lanka in Galle. He joined Don Bradman, Virender Sehwag and Brian Lara on the list of batsmen to have scored more than two triple-hundreds in Tests. During the innings, he also went past Rohan Kanhai's 256, the highest score by a West Indian batsman in away Tests. •AFP
However, Gayle suffered a dip in form, scoring just one Test hundred against Zimbabwe in Dominica. An injury after the India series ruled him out of the New Zealand tour in December 2013•WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks
He slammed a century and a fifty against Bangladesh at home and those innings turned out to be precursors of his form on the tour to England. With three fifties and a hundred, it was Gayle's best overseas series. The lone century came in the fourth Test at The Oval, with West Indies desperately seeking to avoid an innings defeat. His hundred helped them avoid that ignominy - England were set a target of 1 run - but as in the past, the side suffered heavy defeats. He finished 2004 with 1135 runs, the only time he made more than 1000 Test runs in a year•Getty Images
When he wasn't struggling with injuries, Gayle was swerving between wanting to captain West Indies and sending his resignation to the selectors. On the field, his first century as captain came on the tour to New Zealand - a dour 197 in Napier. It was his first Test hundred in three-and-a-half years. He scored three hundreds in the next 10 Tests. •Getty Images
After months of an ugly contractual dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and the players, Gayle was appointed captain for the 2009-2010 tour of Australia. He responded with a steady century in the Adelaide Test and then put on a fearsome display of big-hitting in Perth. His blistering 102 off 72 balls was the fifth-fastest hundred in Test cricket. Here, a ball he tonked for six is recovered from the Lillee- Marsh stand. •Getty Images
A decision to sign up for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2011 set off a chain of events that ended with Gayle spending 15 months out of Test cricket. His criticism of the WICB stirred more controversy and it was only in March 2012 that WICB and Gayle reached some sort of settlement. After committing himself to playing for West Indies in all forms of cricket, Gayle was brought back into the team. •Bangladesh Cricket Board
Gayle is also a handy offspin bowler and has picked up 72 Test wickets with two five-fors - against England and Pakistan. Lately, however, Gayle has bowled fewer overs. If he plays the first Test against New Zealand in Kingston, he will be the ninth West Indies player to have 100 Test appearances•AFP