South African batter Heinrich Klaasen revealed Chris Gayle to be his idol as he wears the #45 shirt in honor of the West Indian.
Klaasen is representing Sunrisers Hyderabad in the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League where he has scored 253 runs at a lethal strike rate of 199.21.
The South African hammered Royal Challengers Bangalore for a 31-ball 67 courtesy of two fours and seven sixes in the previous match of SRH.
Klaasen gave an interview to international media where he confessed: “I haven’t really had one specific guy that I looked up to. I’ve always gone through stages. At the start, it was Chris Gayle. I just loved how he dominated any kind of bowler. That’s why I’ve got Number 45 on my back, he was the reason behind it.”
The high-scoring batter is in awe of Aussie legends Mathew Hayden, Michael Clarke and former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum: “I went through a stage where I watched a lot of Matthew Hayden. The way he played his game. Then Brendon McCullum, when he went through the phase of teeing off against everyone, and then I went through a phase where I looked at how Michael Clarke played spin. I tried to copy a little bit of his technique into my spin play. I went through a lot of phases where I liked certain types of batters and how they played.”