Babar Azam, Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi have recently retired from BPL. To fill their vacancies, three foreign stars Imran Tahir, Reza Hendricks and James Neesham have joined the Rangpur Raiders camp. The Rangpur franchise has confirmed this on their social media. New Zealand all-rounder Neesham joined on Friday (February 9). And today two Protea stars Tahir and Reza set foot in Dhaka.
Even though the experienced Tiger all-rounder has not shouldered the burden of leadership, Rangpur Riders are in a great rhythm in the current BPL. They are at the top of the table with 5 wins in 7 matches. Foreign stars played a big role in Rangpur’s consistent performance.
Babar Azam, Pakistan’s batsman in particular, was outstanding with the bat. He is the second highest run scorer of the season so far with 251 runs in 6 matches at an average of 50.20. And two Afghans Omarzai and Nabi have won several matches in all-rounding skills.
Babar had to leave the BPL midway to play in his country’s league. On the other hand, Omarzai and Nabir left the Rangpur camp to fulfill the duties of the national team. Rangpur was in a crisis of foreign cricketers. However, they are relieved to have three foreigners join the camp before taking to the field in the mission to retain the top spot.
Riders will face Chittagong Challengers at 1:30 PM in the first match of the day in BPL on Saturday. Even with 10 points in 7 matches equal to Rangpur, they are behind in net run rate and are in third place. But if they win this match, they will rise to the top.