Rangpur Riders in 2017
# Rangpur Riders in 2017

The Rangpur Riders are a franchise cricket team based in Rangpur, Bangladesh, which plays in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). They are one of the seven teams that are competing in the 2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League. The team is being captained by Mashrafe Mortaza. They defeated Dhaka Dynamites in the final to be crowned the champions.

## Icon player

Previous icon player Soumya Sarkar wasn't retained as icon for the Riders, resulting in the team announcing Mashrafe Mortaza as the new icon and captain.

## Retention and pre-draft picks

They signed Jamaican t20 specialist, Chris Gayle before the draft. He was supposed to play 4 matches at the end but due to the postponement of the T20 Global League (where he was the marquee pick for Cape Town Knight Riders), he will play the full season but he may miss the first 3–4 matches of the Riders to be able to spent family time in a vacation in Australia. They also signed two English seam bowling all-rounder David Willey and Ravi Bopara. Their other squad members include West Indian leggie Samuel Badree and more pre-draft.

They Retained Rubel Hossain and Sohag Gazi. Both of them bowled well last season. The third retained player is Mohammad Mithun who was their second highest run scorer last season.

## Draft

They picked 8 locals and 3 foreigners from the draft. Their first pick was Shahriar Nafees, a prominent Bangladeshi batsman. The surprise picks were inexperienced and little-known Afghan slow left-arm wrist-spin bowler Zahir Khan.

## Post-draft picks

Due to the postponement of the T20 Global League, the team bagged Sri Lankan yorker-specialist, Lasith Malinga, who was the marquee pick for Stellenbosch Kings and one of the cleanest hitter of the cricket ball, former New Zealand captain and opener Brendon McCullum, who was the marquee pick for Jo'burg Giants.

## Points table

| Pos | Team v t e | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Comilla Victorians (3) | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 0.578 |
| 2 | Dhaka Dynamites (R) | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 1.631 |
| 3 | Khulna Titans (4) | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 0.075 |
| 4 | Rangpur Riders (C) | 12 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 12 | −0.267 |
| 5 | Sylhet Sixers | 12 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 9 | −0.429 |
| 6 | Rajshahi Kings | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 8 | −1.098 |
| 7 | Chittagong Vikings | 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 7 | −0.473 |

* The top four teams will qualify for playoffs
* advanced to the Qualifier 1
* advanced to the Eliminator

## Current squad

Players with international caps are listed in bold

| No. | Name | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Signed year | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Batsmen ||||||||
| 5 | Shahriar Nafees | (1985-05-01) 1 May 1985 (age 38) | Left-handed | – | 2017 | |
| 9 | Adam Lyth | (1979-09-25) 25 September 1979 (age 43) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas |
| 42 | Brendon McCullum | (1981-09-27) 27 September 1981 (age 41) | Right-handed | Right arm medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 333 | Chris Gayle | (1979-09-21) 21 September 1979 (age 43) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas |
| All-rounders ||||||||
| 1 | Thisara Perera | (1989-04-03) 3 April 1989 (age 34) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2015 | Overseas |
| 10 | Ravi Bopara | (1985-05-04) 4 May 1985 (age 38) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 13 | Ziaur Rahman | (1986-12-03) 3 December 1986 (age 36) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2016 | |
| 15 | David Willey | (1990-02-28) 28 February 1990 (age 33) | Left-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 19 | Fazle Mahmud | (1987-12-30) 30 December 1987 (age 35) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 33 | Sohag Gazi | (1991-08-05) 5 August 1991 (age 31) | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2016 | |
| 44 | Nahidul Islam | (1993-07-19) 19 July 1993 (age 30) | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2017 | |
| Wicket-keepers ||||||||
| 8 | Mohammad Mithun | (1990-02-13) 13 February 1990 (age 33) | Right-handed | – | 2015 | |
| 25 | Johnson Charles | (1989-01-14) 14 January 1989 (age 34) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Overseas |
| 88 | Kusal Perera | (1990-08-17) 17 August 1990 (age 32) | Left-handed | – | 2017 | Overseas |
| Bowlers ||||||||
| 2 | Mashrafe Mortaza | (1983-10-05) 5 October 1983 (age 39) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Captain |
| 19 | Elias Sunny | (1986-08-02) 2 August 1986 (age 36) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2016 | |
| 21 | Nazmul Islam | (1991-03-21) 21 March 1991 (age 32) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 34 | Rubel Hossain | (1990-01-01) 1 January 1990 (age 33) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2016 | |
| 41 | Abdur Razzak | (1982-06-15) 15 June 1982 (age 41) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 58 | Ebadat Hossain | (1994-01-07) 7 January 1994 (age 29) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2017 | |
| 75 | Zahir Khan | (1998-12-20) 20 December 1998 (age 24) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm wrist-spin | 2017 | Overseas |
| 77 | Samuel Badree | (1981-03-09) 9 March 1981 (age 42) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | 2017 | Overseas |
| 99 | Lasith Malinga | (1983-08-28) 28 August 1983 (age 39) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |
