The Rangpur Riders are a franchise cricket team based in Rangpur, Bangladesh, which plays in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). They were one of seven teams that competed in the 2017–18 BPL. The team was captained by Mashrafe Mortaza. They defeated the Dhaka Dynamites in the final to be crowned the champions.
Team changes Previous icon player Soumya Sarkar was not retained, resulting in the team announcing Mashrafe Mortaza as the new icon and captain.
They signed Jamaican T20 specialist Chris Gayle before the draft. He was initially supposed to play in four matches, but due to the postponement of the T20 Global League, was available for the full season. They also signed two English seam bowling all-rounders, David Willey and Ravi Bopara. Their other squad members included West Indian Samuel Badree.
The team retained Rubel Hossain, Sohag Gazi, and Mohammad Mithun.
The team picked eight local and three overseas players in the draft. Their first pick was Shahriar Nafees, a prominent Bangladeshi batsman. The surprise pick was the inexperienced and little-known Afghan slow left-arm wrist-spin bowler Zahir Khan.
Due to the postponement of the T20 Global League, the team added Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga and former New Zealand captain and opener Brendon McCullum.
Points table
Squad Players with international caps are listed in bold Ages are as of the date of the first match in the season No.NameNationality2017|11|04Batting styleBowling styleYear signedNotes Batsmen5Shahriar Nafees Left-handed – 2017 9Adam Lyth Left-handed Right-arm off break 2017 Overseas42Brendon McCullum Right-handed Right arm medium 2017 Overseas333Chris Gayle Left-handed Right-arm off break 2017 Overseas All-rounders1Thisara Perera Left-handed Right-arm medium 2015 Overseas10Ravi Bopara Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 2017 Overseas13Ziaur Rahman Left-handed Right-arm medium 2016 15David Willey Left-handed Left-arm fast-medium 2017 Overseas19Fazle Mahmud Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox 2017 33Sohag Gazi Right-handed Right-arm off-break 2016 44Nahidul Islam Right-handed Right-arm off-break 2017 Wicket-keepers8Mohammad Mithun Right-handed – 2015 25Johnson Charles Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast 2017 Overseas88Kusal Perera Left-handed – 2017 Overseas Bowlers2Mashrafe Mortaza Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast 2017 Captain19Elias Sunny Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox 2016 21Nazmul Islam Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox 2017 34Rubel Hossain Right-handed Right-arm fast 2016 41Abdur Razzak Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox 2017 58Ebadat Hossain Right-handed Right-arm fast 2017 75Zahir Khan Left-handed Slow left-arm wrist-spin 2017 Overseas77Samuel Badree Right-handed Right-arm leg break 2017 Overseas99Lasith Malinga Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 2017 Overseas
References