The infectious smile that reaches his eyes. The shoulder jigs to Caribbean music. The quiet leadership as he helps Jason Holder with field placements - there is an energy to Chris Gayle that is hard to describe; it's often not evident in his movements, or the lack of them. Holder has often said "there's a special energy" in the dressing room when Gayle is around. It's like the crowd has suddenly been jerked awake and given a double shot of espresso and now they all suddenly want to bounce off the walls.
That's the effect Gayle has.
In the second ODI against India in Port of Spain - also his 300th ODI, a feat Holder called "unimaginable to many players in the dressing room" - Gayle's every move earned him cheers from fans, and sometimes from his opponents too. Along the way, he also overtook Brian Lara's record of 10,353 runs to top the run chart for West Indies in ODI history.
Starting with the photo-op
He posed with the numbers 3, 0 and 0 from the manual scorecard before the West Indies started bowling after losing the toss, big smile on, his colleagues clapping. At first slip, he helped Holder make fielding decisions, often getting in a huddle with the captain to figure out a new plan when Virat Kohli took flight. The crowd cheered on every save he made, especially the one at extra cover when he stopped a Kohli extra-cover drive off Kemar Roach early on.
And then off the field
After the 20-over mark, Gayle took some time off. Not unusual if you have followed his career of late. The fans wanted more, though, and put up placards that varied from "I love Gayle" and "We want a Gayle storm", some yelling "come back Gayle". He did, after a while.
Going past Lara
Gayle took his time with his innings, as he often does, sneaking a couple of singles and letting local star Evin Lewis take the lead. In the ninth over, he cut a short delivery to third man for a single, and that took him past Lara to be West Indies' top scorer in ODIs. When the fans didn't react to the accomplishment, in the absence of a formal announcement, Kohli waved his arms, alerting them to the achievement. Gayle raised his bat, grinning widely. The crowd erupted, and the Indian fielders joined in with claps - it was quite a moment.
Four deliveries later, he scythed a length ball between backward point and cover to overtake another one of Lara's records - this time the total number of ODI runs scored (West Indies and ICC XI) - 10,353.
And then it was all over
Every ball Gayle faces is an event at times, and so was the full delivery in the tenth over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar that struck him dead in front of middle stump. The umpire's finger went up instantly, and Gayle, after taking a few seconds to think about it - an inside edge, maybe? - sent it up for a review. Replays showed no bat, and he took the ball low and centre. He was dismissed for 11 in 24 balls.
"We didn't want him to score runs, especially in this match," Bhuvneshwar, whose four-wicket haul helped India to victory, said afterwards. "But, of course, we were all happy for him. He is a very good person and it's a good achievement."