The 2023 season of the Bangladesh Premier League will see the comeback of the Rangpur Riders in the competition. They were not part of the last BPL season in 2021, and it was a six-team competition. But with their comeback, there will be seven teams in the coming edition. The BPL 2023 will start on January 6 and run until February 16, with a total of 46 games. Rangpur Riders, who had already won the tournament in 2017, couldn’t repeat the feat.
But with their comeback now, the franchise would like to make it more special by winning the trophy. That’s why the franchise has picked some good names in the player draft to get the right combination. The franchise will start their season with a game against the defending champions, the Comilla Victorians, which will be played on January 6 at the Shere Bangla Stadium.
Rangpur Rangers Highest Score in BPL
Rangpur Rangers Lowest Score in BPL
Rangpur Riders Squad 2023
Rangpur made their BPL debut in 2013 under the name Rangpur Riders. Then they changed the name to Rangpur Rangers for the 2019 season. But in the coming season, the franchise has named the team the Rangpur Riders only. The 2017 BPL champion has announced veteran Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik as their captain, while the current spin-bowling coach of the Bangladesh men’s team, Sohel Islam, is the head coach for Rangpur Riders. The squad is a mix of overseas stars and great local talent.
A total of 23 players are in the squad, which includes 11 overseas stars. Malik will have the company of Sikandar Raza, Pathum Nissanka, Mohammad Naim, Aaron Jones, and Benny Howell to strengthen the batting order. On the other hand, the bowling department looks pretty strong for this team. They have Afghan superstar Mujeeb ur Rahman and mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana from Sri Lanka. But then, they have also got one of the leading pacers in T20 cricket, Haris Rauf. This team has a decent line-up, but their bowling might pose some concern in the coming season. So it will be interesting to see how Shoaib Malik will marshal his troops to take this team to their second BPL title.
Squad: Nurul Hasan, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Shoaib Malik (c), Sikandar Raza, Pathum Nissanka, Jeffrey Vandersay, Mahedi Hasan, Hasan Mahmud, Mohammad Naim, Rakibul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Ripon Mondol, Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Jones, Rony Talukdar, Parvez Hossain Emon, Rabiul Haque, Alauddin Babu, Benny Howell, Saim Ayub, Maheesh Theekshana, Mujeeb ur Rahman
Star performer For the Franchise
Mohammad Naim will be the pick of the batter for Rangpur. He was their leading run scorer in the previous BPL season that they played in 2020. Although the team doesn’t have the same set of batter that they had last time, their batting is still strong.
Batter | Mts | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50s/100s |
Mohammad Naim | 12 | 359 | 78 | 32.63 | 115.43 | 2/0 |
Lewis Gregory | 11 | 262 | 76* | 26.20 | 140.10 | 1/0 |
Cameron Delport | 9 | 176 | 63 | 19.55 | 154.38 | 1/0 |
Shane Watson | 7 | 93 | 68 | 13.28 | 120.77 | 1/0 |
Al Amin | 7 | 92 | 35 | 23.00 | 119.48 | 0/0 |
Top Bowlers from the last season
Mustafizur Rahman was part of the Rangpur squad the last time they played in the 2020 season. And he was the highest wicket-taker in the season. He along with Lewis Gregory took 35 wickets among them.
Bowler | Mts | Wkts | BBI | Econ |
Mustafizur Rahman | 12 | 20 | 3/10 | 7.01 |
Lewis Gregory | 11 | 15 | 2/25 | 7.64 |
Taskin Ahmed | 8 | 11 | 4/29 | 9.15 |
Mohammad Nabi | 11 | 11 | 2/21 | 6.65 |
Arafat Sunny | 9 | 4 | 2/29 | 8.26 |