Foreign cricketers have been a special attraction of the Indian Premier League since the first season. The 14th edition of the IPL featured several star cricketers from across the world. Quite a few foreign stars participated in the IPL 2021 season and made the tournament special. Initially, most foreigners preferred international cricket over IPL.
However, the trend has changed of late. Nowadays, more and more foreign stars prefer playing in the IPL over international matches. Due to this reason, almost every star foreigner was available for IPL 2021 season UAE leg despite the start of the T20 World Cup just two days after the IPL Final. Almost every foreign player impressed the fans in IPL 2021, and now that the 2021 season of the league has ended, let’s have a look at the best playing XI of the tournament comprising only overseas cricketers.
Best overseas openers in the IPL 2021 season – Faf du Plessis and Jos Buttler (WK)
Chennai Super Kings opener Faf du Plessis won the Man of the Match award in the IPL 2021 season finale against the Kolkata Knight Riders. He recorded a fantastic fifty in the big game. However, he missed out on the Orange Cap by just three runs. Nevertheless, du Plessis would be satisfied with his performance and the fact that his team won their fourth IPL trophy.
Opening the innings for this team along with du Plessis will be Rajasthan Royals’ wicket-keeper Jos Buttler. The Englishman did not play in the UAE leg of IPL 2021, but he attained 24th spot on the Orange Cap leaderboard thanks to his 254 runs in seven matches during Phase 1 of the tournament. Notably, Buttler played an innings of 124 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Middle Order – Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell
Moeen Ali was the main reason behind Chennai Super Kings’ massive comeback in IPL 2021. The English all-rounder fired all guns blazing while batting in the top-order for the Super Kings. Ali scored 357 runs in 15 innings at a brilliant strike rate of 137.30 for the Chennai-based franchise.
The next two names on this team are from the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad. Both AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell have made the cut to this team. Maxwell was the only RCB star to score more than 500 runs this year, while de Villiers aggregated 313 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of close to 150.
Best overseas All Rounders in IPL 2021 season – Sunil Narine and Jason Holder
Both names in this category are from the West Indies. Sunil Narine was perhaps the best overseas all-rounder in IPL 2021, with 16 wickets and 62 runs to his name in 14 matches. Narine scored some quick runs for the team when they needed the most. Also, he was the best bowler for KKR in the IPL 2021 playoffs.
Jason Holder is the first name from the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad to feature on this team. Holder only received a place in eight matches, but he made a huge impact by scoring 85 runs and scalping 16 wickets. The Caribbean star smashed six sixes in IPL 2021.
Bowlers – Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lockie Ferguson
Rashid Khan and Kagiso Rabada were present in the Top 15 of the IPL 2021 Purple Cap leaderboard. SRH’s leggie Rashid scalped 18 wickets in 14 matches, while previous season’s Purple Cap winner Kagiso finished 13th this year by taking 15 wickets for DC.
Anrich Nortje and Lockie Ferguson played only in Phase 2 of IPL 2021 but were quite impressive. Nortje took 12 wickets in eight games for Delhi, and Ferguson bagged 13 wickets in the same number of matches for KKR.
