| Club: | Rangpur Riders রংপুর রাইডার্স |
| Season: | 2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League |
| Coach: | Tom Moody |
| Captain: | Mashrafe Mortaza |
| Comp1: | BPL |
| Comp1 Result: | Champions |
| Prevseason: | 2016 |
| Most Runs: | Chris Gayle (485) |
| Most Wickets: | Mashrafe Mortaza (15) |
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.
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.[1]
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 spend family time in a vacation in Australia.[2] 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.[3]
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.
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.[4]
Players with international caps are listed in bold
| No. | Name | Nat | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Signed year | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | ||||||||
| 5 | Shahriar Nafees | 1985 5, df=y | Left-handed | – | 2017 | |||
| 9 | Adam Lyth | 1979 9, df=y | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 42 | Brendon McCullum |  | 1981 9, df=y | Right-handed | Right arm medium | 2017 | Overseas | |
| 333 | Chris Gayle | 1979 9, df=y | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| All-rounders | ||||||||
| 1 | Thisara Perera |  | 1989 4, df=y | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2015 | Overseas | |
| 10 | Ravi Bopara | 1985 5, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 13 | Ziaur Rahman | 1986 12, df=y | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | 2016 | |||
| 15 | David Willey | 1990 2, df=y | Left-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 19 | Fazle Mahmud |  | 1987 12, df=y | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | ||
| 33 | Sohag Gazi | 1991 8, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2016 | |||
| 44 | | 1993 7, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | 2017 | |||
| Wicket-keepers | ||||||||
| 8 | Mohammad Mithun | 1990 2, df=y | Right-handed | – | 2015 | |||
| 25 | Johnson Charles | 1989 1, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 88 | Kusal Perera | | 1990 8, df=y | Left-handed | – | 2017 | Overseas | |
| Bowlers | ||||||||
| 2 | Mashrafe Mortaza | 1983 10, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | 2017 | Captain | ||
| 19 | Elias Sunny | 1986 8, df=y | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2016 | |||
| 21 | Nazmul Islam | 1991 3, df=y | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |||
| 34 | Rubel Hossain | 1990 1, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2016 | |||
| 41 | Abdur Razzak | 1982 6, df=y | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | 2017 | |||
| 58 | 1994 1, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | 2017 | ||||
| 75 |  | 1998 12, df=y | Left-handed | Slow left-arm wrist-spin | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 77 | Samuel Badree | 1981 3, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | 2017 | Overseas | ||
| 99 | Lasith Malinga | | 1983 8, df=y | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | 2017 | Overseas | |