# 2017 Rangpur Riders season

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 Bangladesh Premier League. The team was being captained by Mashrafe Mortaza. They defeated 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, 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 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

| 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

## Squad

* Players with international caps are listed in bold
* Ages are as of the date of the first match in the season
| No. | Name | Nationality | 2017|11|04 | Batting style | Bowling style | Year signed | Notes |
| Batsmen ||||||||
| 5 | Shahriar Nafees | Bangladesh | (1985-05-01)1 May 1985 (aged 32) | Left-handed | – | 2017 | |
| 9 | Adam Lyth | England | (1979-09-25)25 September 1979 (aged 38) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas |
| 42 | Brendon McCullum | New Zealand | (1981-09-27)27 September 1981 (aged 36) | Right-handed | Right arm medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 333 | Chris Gayle | West Indies | (1979-09-21)21 September 1979 (aged 38) | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas |
| All-rounders ||||||||
| 1 | Thisara Perera | Sri Lanka | (1989-04-03)3 April 1989 (aged 28) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2015 | Overseas |
| 10 | Ravi Bopara | England | (1985-05-04)4 May 1985 (aged 32) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 13 | Ziaur Rahman | Bangladesh | (1986-12-03)3 December 1986 (aged 30) | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2016 | |
| 15 | David Willey | England | (1990-02-28)28 February 1990 (aged 27) | Left-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |
| 19 | Fazle Mahmud | Bangladesh | (1987-12-30)30 December 1987 (aged 29) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 33 | Sohag Gazi | Bangladesh | (1991-08-05)5 August 1991 (aged 26) | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2016 | |
| 44 | Nahidul Islam | Bangladesh | (1993-07-19)19 July 1993 (aged 24) | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2017 | |
| Wicket-keepers ||||||||
| 8 | Mohammad Mithun | Bangladesh | (1990-02-13)13 February 1990 (aged 27) | Right-handed | – | 2015 | |
| 25 | Johnson Charles | West Indies | (1989-01-14)14 January 1989 (aged 28) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Overseas |
| 88 | Kusal Perera | Sri Lanka | (1990-08-17)17 August 1990 (aged 27) | Left-handed | – | 2017 | Overseas |
| Bowlers ||||||||
| 2 | Mashrafe Mortaza | Bangladesh | (1983-10-05)5 October 1983 (aged 34) | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Captain |
| 19 | Elias Sunny | Bangladesh | (1986-08-02)2 August 1986 (aged 31) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2016 | |
| 21 | Nazmul Islam | Bangladesh | (1991-03-21)21 March 1991 (aged 26) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 34 | Rubel Hossain | Bangladesh | (1990-01-01)1 January 1990 (aged 27) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2016 | |
| 41 | Abdur Razzak | Bangladesh | (1982-06-15)15 June 1982 (aged 35) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |
| 58 | Ebadat Hossain | Bangladesh | (1994-01-07)7 January 1994 (aged 23) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2017 | |
| 75 | Zahir Khan | Afghanistan | (1998-12-20)20 December 1998 (aged 18) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm wrist-spin | 2017 | Overseas |
| 77 | Samuel Badree | West Indies | (1981-03-09)9 March 1981 (aged 36) | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | 2017 | Overseas |
| 99 | Lasith Malinga | Sri Lanka | (1983-08-28)28 August 1983 (aged 34) | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas |