Bangabandhu BPL to commence with a doubleheader at Mirpur

As the dawn will be marking the start of a new day, it will not just be another day in Bangladesh cricket as this will be the day when the special edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), renamed Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League T20 2019. This special edition is being arranged by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

On the first day of the first tournament, two teams will lock horns at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. The first of them is between Chattogram Challengers and Sylhet Thunder, whereas the second match will see Rangpur Rangers and Cumilla Warriors fight it out in the middle.

Chattogram face Sylhet

The opening match of this BPL sees two of the most famed tourist divisions - Chattogram and Sylhet pit against each other. Both of the sides have never tasted glory in Bangladesh's own T20 league and look to win it this time around.

Chattogram Challengers have secured a formidable side this time with loads of experience. Their skipper Mahmudullah Riyad needs no introduction, and with the likes of Imrul Kayes, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain and Junaid Siddique in their ranks, they have loads of experience within their squad. And with Pinak Ghosh and Nasum Ahmed, they have young guns at their disposal too.

They have a good bunch of overseas players too including the likes of Chris Gayle, Imad Wasim and Rayad Emrit. But they have a minor problem in that case as they will be missing Chris Gayle until January as the so-called 'Universe Boss' is out with an injury.

Coming to injury problems, they have another in their skipper Mahmudullah, who is out of the first two games with a hamstring injury. Imrul Kayes is the likely choice for filling in the hole Riyad is leaving.

Chattogram skipper Mahmudullah is looking for a good start to get into the stride as early as possible. He said, "The start is very important, if we can start well, we can do well. Once you lose the momentum in T20, it is tough to come back. So we will obviously try to start the season with a win to gain momentum."

Sylhet Thunder, on the other hand, have a comparative inexperienced squad. Their skipper Mosaddek Hossain is thought to be the future captain of the Bangladesh National team and this marks his captaincy debut in the BPL. They have players who have vowed for the national team in Mohammad Mithun, Nayeem Hasan, Nazmul Islam, Rony Talukder and Sohag Gazi, along with some fresh talents in Delwar Hossain, Monir Hossain Khan, Rubel Mia.

Their overseas players have some firepower in them as they have brought in the likes of Johnson Charles, Sherfane Rutherford, Shafiqullah Shafaq and Naveen-ul-Haq.

The skipper of the Sylhet side, Mosaddek was pretty hopeful about his team and he vowed to take his team as far as he could. Answering questions, he replied, "I think that we are a team capable enough to fight for the trophy. There is always hope.  I will try to take Sylhet as far in the tournament as possible."

The match kicks off at 1:30 PM at the Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at Mirpur.

Rangpur takes on Cumilla

The second match of the day sees Rangpur Rangers take on Cumilla Warriors under the lights. Both the sides tasted success earlier in BPL and will look to win it once again.

Rangpur have a mix of young and old in their side, but what stands out for them is their bowling lineup. Along with skipper Mohammad Nabi, they have the likes of Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny and Junaid Khan. They might lack in some parts of their batting, but Naim Sheikh, Mohammad Shahzad, Shai Hope and their skipper Mohammad Nabi are there to put some runs on the board. But one thing can be told for certain about this team is that they have a bowling side which is better than most of the teams.

Mohammad Nabi was quite hopeful with his team and looked forward to creating a good team combination to win the lot. He said during the team's jersey unveiling ceremony, "We will try to make a winning combination from this squad. We have made a team with talented Bangladeshi and foreign players. We will try our best to bring in good results in the tournament."

Cumilla on the other hand, have quite some young talents in their squad. The likes of Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Yasir Ali Chowdhury and Abu Hider Rony have shown promises but have not yet bloomed to their fullest yet, but have shown sparks of what they can do at times.

Their skipper, Dasun Shanaka, is also a fresh choice for captaincy as Shanaka does not have the experience of captaining at the international level.

They have a lot of firepower in batting as along with the local quality batsmen, they have the likes of Dawid Malan and Kusal Perera at their ranks.

They have a pretty solid bowling attack to go with their firepower in batting as they have Al-Amin Hossain, Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman and Abu Hider Rony at their hands.

The match kicks off at 6:30 PM at the Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at Mirpur.