He walked back to the dug-out, having scored a nine-ball 15, waving his bat at the crowd before being hugged by teammates Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo after crossing the boundary ropes. He even gave his gloves to the fans at the at the Sheikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi. And at the end of the game, that saw the defending champions West Indies suffer an eight-wicket defeat to Australia, Gayle was given a guard of honour by the Australian players along with Bravo after which he signed on the cameras before throwing signed T-shirts at the crowd. Bravo did make it his retirement official ahead of the start of West Indies’ final T20 World Cup game in the UAE, but did Gayle’s actions hint towards a similar?

He bludgeoned the shortish delivery from Josh Hazlewood over deep mid-wicket for a six and hammered another, from Pat Cummins, over long-on, for what was his 1045th six in T20 cricket. But dragged Cummins on to his stumps in the very next delivery to bring an end to his knock.

Although the 42-year-old did not make any official announcement yet, neither did he hint towards any at the start of the tournament which looked like the end of an era for West Indies’ T20 cricket, the generation that won the 2012 and the 2016 World Cup, it seems unlikely that the veteran would return for West Indies in T20Is.

Watching Gayle as he soaked in all the appreciation from the crowd while walking back to the pavilion after his dismissal, former West Indies cricketers Ian Bishop and Daren Sammy hailed the T20 phenom from the commentary box. “Everything points to this being the last time we will see Gayle in West Indies’ colours,” Bishop said on air.

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Having made his international debut in 1999, Gayle has 1899 runs in 79 T20Is. He averaged 28.11 and struck at 137.31. He has also scored 7214 runs in 103 Tests and 10480 runs in 301 ODIs and is a former West Indies captain as well.

Gayle’s tally includes two centuries and 14 half-centuries. He also scalped 19 wickets in the shortest format. A regular opener, Gayle often batted at number 3 in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup.

In his T20 career, Gayle scored a total of 14,321 runs from 445 innings, including 22 centuries and a world record score of 175 off just 66 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2013 IPL season.