Gayle becomes first player to hit 1,000 T20 sixes

Christopher Henry Gayle has touched yet another milestone. 

During the match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals on Friday night, he became the first player to hit 1,000 sixes in T20. 

On Friday night’s match, Gayle single-handedly hit eight sixes and six fours, taking his total number of sixes in T20 cricket to 1,001. He scored 99 in 43 balls on the match. 

Among those 1,001 sixes, 349 were hit in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is more than any other player participating in the tournament. 

“A thousand maximums — another record? Oh man," 41-year-old Gayle told Star Sports after the innings. 

There is no other player who has even come close to this Jamaican cricketer when it comes to the number of sixes. Kieron Pollard, a Trinidadian cricketer and captain of West Indies, has hit 690 sixes in T20. 

New Zealander Brendon McCullum holds the third position with 485 sixes. 

Gayle’s total score in T20 is 13,572, almost half of which came from his sixes. 

Gayle is currently getting paid Rs2 crore playing for Kings XI Punjab, which is not much, considering that he got paid Rs56 crore in the same franchise only a couple of years ago. 

But if he can keep the consistency in performance, he may end up getting much more than Rs2 crore in the next IPL