KFC SuperCoach BBL: Full guide to the international signings at every club for BBL11

Which internationals will take the BBL by storm this year, and who should we be picking in KFC SuperCoach? We crunch the numbers on the best buys.

Internationals are a critical piece of the KFC SuperCoach BBL puzzle.

Whether it is returning favourites like Tom Curran and Rashid Khan or new T20 specialists bursting onto the scene, internationals are signed by BBL franchises for a reason and are generally some of the best KFC SuperCoach scorers on offer.

Often new signings are priced favourably in KFC SuperCoach and this makes them even more attractive, especially if they are all-rounders.

Which ones should we be selecting in SuperCoach, and who are the signings we need to steer clear of?

Tim Michell and Dan Batten crunch the numbers on the internationals you should be looking at for your side.

Rashid Khan has been the BBL’s dominant bowler in recent summers.

Adelaide Strikers

Strike weapon Rashid Khan ($198k BWL) needs no introduction after dominating the BBL in recent summers. The Afghan star boasts an incredible 72 wickets from 50 BBL matches and a career economy rate of 6.46. That all equals bulk KFC SuperCoach BBL points. Rashid’s lowest score last season was 45 points and he went as high as 127 points in Round 4. In the past two seasons, he has only scored less than 45 points in a round twice, highlighting his incredible consistency and matchwinning ability. With the Strikers boasting a double in Round 2 and early games against wooden spooner Melbourne Renegades, Rashid is going to be close to a must-have. Englishman George Garton ($125k BAT-BWL) will bolster the Strikers bowling line-up after the loss of Michael Neser to Brisbane Heat.

George Garton is a handy lower-order batsman and left-arm quick.

Garton is also a handy batsman but more renowned for his left-arm pace and finished this year’s Vitality Blast tournament with 11 wickets and 96 runs (three innings) from seven matches. Garton will complement Khan’s aggressive lower-order batting after recording a strike rate of 165.5 this year in England’s T20 competition. If he can replicate something close to his bowling strike rate of 13 from the Vitality Blast, he’ll be a great starting pick.

— Tim Michell

Bowling 🚀 and hitting 6️⃣, all in a days work for @george_garton#Blast21pic.twitter.com/lzRG0tGpSi

— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) October 9, 2021

Ben Duckett celebrates a Vitality Blast win with Dan Christian.

Brisbane Heat

Englishmen have traditionally struggled in their debut BBL campaigns but new Heat duo Ben Duckett ($125k WKP-BAT) and Tom Abell ($125k BAT) will be hoping to buck the trend. Abell is a batting all-rounder, although he is sparingly used with the ball in England’s T20 competition. That is likely to be the case unless the Heat is hit by injuries to their bowling stocks. Duckett is a hard-hitting batsman-wicketkeeper, although new skipper Jimmy Peirson will almost certainly takes the gloves for Brisbane. The obvious issue is the overseas pair could miss the Round 1 double if they are included in the England Lions squad for any tour matches.

Mujeeb ur Rahman jumps for joy after taking a wicket last season.

Abell has been named in the initial touring party while Duckett could be added in the event of injury or unavailability. Brisbane’s Round 6 double might be a more realistic time to target Duckett and Abell when KFC SuperCoaches will have been able to assess how they have adapted to the BBL. Mujeeb Ur Rahman ($208k BWL) was brilliant last season but is too expensive to consider when almost all his points come from bowling. Hope he’s dropped to $150k or less by Round 6 rather than paying top dollar from the start. Although saying that, he became harder to overlook with every strong performance at the T20 World Cup. Mujeeb snared 14 wickets in eight games in BBL10 with an economy rate of 6.26.

— Tim Michell

Congratulations to Tom Abell who has won the White Ball Player of the Year award! 👏👏👏#WeAreSomersetpic.twitter.com/ZnKCbv3njL

— Somerset Cricket 🏏 (@SomersetCCC) October 2, 2021

Melbourne Renegades

The President returns! Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi ($138,200 BAT/BWL) signed on Wednesday for his fifth season with the Renegades off the back of some promising T20 World Cup batting form. The Afghanistan captain scored 123 runs in five innings with three not outs — boasting the equal fifth-highest batting average of any player in the Super 12 — but took just the single wicket from 12 overs with the ball.

A favourite son returns!@MohammadNabi007 is back for a 5th season with the Renegades and we are pumped! 💪👊

Make sure you don't miss a second!https://t.co/I5Fg46gH7p#GETONREDpic.twitter.com/Dt9vqfuvDh

— Melbourne Renegades (@RenegadesBBL) November 9, 2021

Meanwhile, the Renegades made history last week by signing Unmukt Chand ($105k BAT), the first Indian cricketer to play in the BBL. While he has reached the lofty heights of the Indian Premier League, playing sparingly for the Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals, Chand has most recently turned out in the USA’s Minor Cricket League, which I didn’t realise existed until his signing. The standard looks about par with the European Cricket League, headlined by Romanian Pavel Florin, but Chandt averaged 51 — with a top score of 132 — at a strike rate of 125.15 for the Silicon Valley Strikers. Tall English seamer Reece Topley ($125k BWL), a reserve member of England’s T20 World Cup squad, might be of greater interest for KFC SuperCoaches. Topley has represented England in six T20Is and 13 ODIs, but took a modest four wickets from seven matches in The Hundred. It may be worth giving him, and Chandt, a look before taking the plunge. The Gades completed their international quartet with the signing of Zahir Khan ($95k BWL). Much like his compatriot ur Rahman, Zahir has relied heavily on wickets and the economy rate bonus to score KFC SuperCoach points. That means his scoring can be volatile, as was the case last season when he collected six wickets in eight matches for the Stars. The obvious difference between Khan and ur Rahman this season is the former is more than $100k cheaper and his $95k price tag makes him one of the cheapest internationals available at the start of BBL11.

— Dan Batten, Tim Michell

Reece Topley has represented England in T20s and ODIs. Picture: AFP

Melbourne Stars

Englishman Joe Clarke ($112,500 WKP-BAT), who featured in three matches for the Scorchers last year for modest returns of 10, 34 and 0, has joined the Stars for BBL11. However, after finishing as the seventh-ranked run scorer in the Vitality Blast — including a monster 136 from 65 deliveries – Clarke can provide serious value at his discount price. Boasting a career strike rate of 155 in T20s, Clarke will be one to watch if he bats up the order —- especially if he takes the gloves — with Stars keeper Seb Gotch sidelined with a finger injury. Another potential option is former Hurricane Qais Ahmad ($125,000, BWL). The Afghan leg-spinner, boasting a fierce trick-ball bouncer, is a regular on the T20 domestic circuit and had some success in his last season for the Hurricanes in BBL09, taking 12 wickets from 15 matches. He will form a formidable spin duo with Australian frontline tweaker Adam Zampa and presents as a genuine option ahead of the Stars’ double game round in Round 3.

— Dan Batten

Colin Munro has re-signed for a second season with Perth Scorchers.

Perth Scorchers

Experienced T20 campaigner Colin Munro ($135k BAT) is back after a mixed BBL10 campaign. Munro had three scores of six KFC SuperCoach points or less in the opening five rounds last summer, before producing a run of 87, 75, 65, 0 and 156 points in the next five rounds. The zero in the middle of that run serves to highlight how volatile scoring can be for batsmen in KFC SuperCoach BBL. Munro bottomed out at $96k before his hot streak last season and with a break even of 43, KFC SuperCoaches can wait and see whether he makes a fast start to BBL11. Australian audiences won’t be familiar with new English duo Brydon Carse and Laurie Evans. A South African-born quick, Carse has played three one-day internationals for England for six wickets, including a haul of 5-61 against Pakistan. The 26-year-old snared the wickets of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in that game, where he was part of an emergency team thrown together after a positive Covid test in the first-team squad. Carse was rumoured to be close to a Test debut in August but tested positive himself and missed the chance to be part of the England squad. He will have a vital role to play for the Scorchers with Jhye Richardson set to miss most of the BBL after being named in the Ashes squad. He hasn’t been a huge wicket-taker in 40 career T20s, claiming 21 wickets at an average of 45.2 But Carse’s first-class record is more impressive with 95 wickets from 33 games at an average of 29.

Brydon Carse appeals for a wicket playing with the English Lions.

Expect him to bat ahead of the other quicks as he has a career batting average of 21.7 in T20s. Evans is a veteran batsman who has only really gained global recognition in the past 2-3 seasons. Evans will have a huge job at the top of the order in the early rounds when Perth will be without stars Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis due to Australia A duties. Not to mention two mainstays of last season, Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy, have not returned. Evans is a typically-aggressive top-order batter with a career strike rate which eclipses 130 from 184 T20s. Evans has played in the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Pakistan. He scored 123 runs from seven innings at an average of 41 for the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred and 298 runs at 24 for Surrey in the Vitality Blast. He’s definitely one to monitor in the early rounds rather than starting in KFC SuperCoach.

— Tim Michell

Sandeep Lamichhane could be a great KFC SuperCoach buy at only $103k.

Hobart Hurricanes

Big-hitting Englishman Harry Brook ($125k BAT) shapes as an exciting prospect, but KFC SuperCoaches who thought the same about his compatriot Will Jacks last season will be wary. Jacks arrived in Australia with a reputation as a rising star of English T20 cricket but failed to make an impact in his debut BBL campaign. Brook was one of the highest run-scorers in this year’s Vitality Blast with 486 runs at an average of 69.4 and strike rate of 149. Those are stunning numbers and if he replicates them in the BBL, he’ll fast become a must-have.

Harry Brook's made a big impression for @YorkshireCCC 👏#Blast21pic.twitter.com/BhpsSHsTNO

— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) August 10, 2021

Nepalese leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane ($103k BWL) is one of the cheapest internationals this season despite his obvious talent. Four of his eight KFC SuperCoach scores last season were 45 points or more, but on the flip side three were 12 points or less. If you’re prepared for a rollercoaster, he could be a great starting buy.

— Tim Michell

Sydney Sixers

KFC SuperCoach teams lacked safety without Tom Curran ($201,000, BAT-BWL) last season, but the reliable all-rounder will rejoin the Sixers this summer. Curran was the equal-second highest wicket taker in BBL09 with 22 scalps in 14 matches and was more than handy with the bat, scoring 133 runs at a strike rate of just under 150. He looms as an absolute must-have for the Sixers’ Round 1 double. Fellow Englishman James Vince ($153,700, BAT) and West Indian Carlos Brathwaite (117,300, BAT-BWL) are also attractive starting options, with Vince amassing 537 runs (ranked second) at a strike rate of 143 in BBL10, including four half-centuries. Brathwaite can be hit and miss, but has the capacity to pick up wickets and score quick runs down the order.

— Dan Batten

Tom Curran is back in the BBL. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

Sydney Thunder

There was no batter more devastating than Alex Hales ($183,900, BAT) in last year’s BBL, hammering the most runs (543) at the highest strike rate (161.6). He scored three fifties and a rapid 110 at the top of the order, but he doesn’t come cheaply as the most expensive BAT only player in KFC SuperCoach. Meanwhile, fellow English signings Sam Billings ($136,300, WKP-BAT) and Saqib Mahmood ($125,000, BWL) provide more value. Billings posted 260 runs at a strike rate of 142 last season for the Thunder, keeping wicket and generally batting in the top four, while Mahmood could prove a handy point-of-difference selection later in the tournament. The speedster has been selected in the England Lions squad ahead of the Ashes, and will be out of action for the Thunder’s early matches.

Saqib Mahmood gets Babar Azam for the second match in a row 💪pic.twitter.com/NdyCEAanYx

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 10, 2021

Tim Michell’s top five internationals to buy:

1. Tom Curran (Sixers)

2. Rashid Khan (Strikers)

3. Carlos Brathwaite (Sixers)

4. George Garton (Strikers)

5. Sandeep Lamichhane (Hurricanes)

Dan Batten’s top five internationals to buy:

1. Rashid Khan (Strikers)

2. Tom Curran (Sixers)

3. Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Heat)

4. Ben Duckett (Heat)

5. Alex Hales (Thunder)

Originally published as KFC SuperCoach BBL: Full guide to the international signings at every club for BBL11