The Five Best Overseas Batters in IPL History 

Overseas players are of strategic importance to any side in IPL because the franchise sees them as potential match-winners. Most of these players would be their respective national teams’ first choice and the franchise would pick with a hope of translating their success in IPL.

Apart from contributing to the team’s cause, these foreign batters impart their knowledge on to the local Indian players.

Here are the some of overseas batters who would sure shot make to it to the IPL hall of fame if there was one.

David Warner

The Aussie opener is undoubtedly one of the best batters to ever feature in the IPL. The left-hander who has led teams like Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Delhi Capitals (DC), has won the orange cap a record three times (2015, 2017 and 2019).

With 6565 runs in 184 innings, he stands at the peril as highest run-getter in the tournament history among the overseas batters. Warner has hit 4 centuries at an average of 40.52 while striking close to 140. His best moment came when he led the Sunrisers to glory in 2016 with him scoring jaw dropping 848 runs in 17 innings.

Chris Gayle 

It is a no brainer to include the Universe Boss Chris Gayle among the best overseas batters to play in IPL. The destructive opener represented Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Punjab Kings (PBKS) but most of memorable IPL moments came when he was part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

In RCB colors, Gayle amassed 3163 runs in just 84 innings at a staggering strike rate of 152.73 while averaging over 43 with 5 centuries to his name. He is one of the two players (along with Kohli) to have scored over 700 runs in a single IPL season twice.

Overall, Gayle has scored 4965 (8^th most) and his 175* remains the highest individual score in IPL.

AB de Villiers 

Often referred to as Mr.360 for his ability to penetrate through any part of the ground both aerial as well as on the surface while batting, AB de Villiers was an icon when it came to IPL. He had won his teams (Delhi and Bengaluru) a lot of games single-handedly from difficult circumstances.

He is the league’s seventh highest run-getter with 5162 runs from 170 innings and boasts an incredible strike rate of 151.68 with a best score of 133. He has crossed the 3-figure mark thrice in his 14-year IPL career. Like Gayle, the blemish in their otherwise storied IPL career is their failure to win a title even once.

Shane Watson

Speaking of titles, Shane Watson has been part of the IPL winning team twice. First with the Rajasthan Royals in 2008, then with CSK in 2018 and in both times, he played a significant role. He produced a man of the tournament winning performance in 2008 edition, scoring 472 runs and picking 17 wickets, and in 2018 he smashed 555 runs with 2 centuries, including one in the final.

In a career that ended post the 2020 season, Watson made 3874 runs in 141 innings at a good strike rate of around 138 with 4 centuries. The Australian all-rounder can be regarded as one of the best match-winners the league has ever seen.

Faf du Plessis 

With more than 4500 IPL runs (4571), the current RCB skipper stands as the 13^th best scorer in the history of the league and has been part of IPL winning teams thrice (2011, 2018 and 2021), all with the CSK. 

Faf has scored 2721 runs for the franchise in 8 seasons he was part of the squad, before being picked by the Bengaluru based team. The opener remained prolific for RCB, scoring 1636 runs in 3 seasons, making him one of the successful overseas batters the league has seen.