BPL 2019: All you need to know, where to watch and more details

The Bangladesh Premier League is all set to enter its sixth edition. Having its roots in the year 2012, BPL 2018-19 was slated to commence from 1 October 2018. However, with Bangladesh's General Elections falling in the same time frame, Bangladesh Cricket Board decided to shift its premier T20 tournament to 2019 with 5 January 2019 reinforced as its starting date. The league will run until February with the final scheduled on 8 February 2019.

Drafts for BPL 2019 got underway on 28 October 2018 at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka. With all the teams retaining a few players, as many as 554 players (186 Bangladeshi and 368 foreign players) happened to be a part of the drafts.

It is worthy to note that, initially, the drafts were to take place on 25 October 2018. However, they were clashing with the ODI series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and hence BCB shifted it to 28 October 2018.

Where to watch details

The much awaited BPL will be played between 5th January – 8th February 2019 will be broadcast on DSPORT, a Premier Sports Channel for Discovery Communications India.

For viewers in Bangladesh, Gazi TV will broadcast all 46 fixtures of BPL 2019 on GTV.

Viewers can also catch the action online through Rabbithole website and its App. Rabbitholebd Entertainment will live stream the games and offer highlights as well on its Youtube Channel.

Changes for BPL 2019

BPL 2019 will be featuring seven teams which will be representing seven cities. Moreover, this time around, there is a rule change which will allow all the teams to include a maximum of 4 overseas players in the final playing XI, unlike the previous editions where five foreign players were allowed in the final XI. Besides, this will be the first time that BPL will be using the Decision Review System (DRS).

Qualification Criteria

BPL 2019 will be following the same qualification cycle as of the Indian Premier League. All the seven teams will be contesting in a round-robin league where each side will be playing against every other team once. After the end of the league stage, the top four teams will contest in the playoffs to decide the winner.

The playoffs will include Eliminator, Qualifier 1, and Qualifier 2. At first, the third-ranked and the fourth-ranked team will contest in Eliminator where the winner will proceed to Qualifier 2 whereas the loser will have to rest their case. After the Eliminator, the top two ranked teams will contest in Qualifier 1 where the winner will advance to finals while the loser will have to play against the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2. Consequently, the winner of the Qualifier 2 and the winner of the Qualifier 1 will contest for the beautiful trophy of BPL 2019.

BPL 2019 Squads

Alongside a good number of local players, plenty of foreign stars are also going to be a part of the sixth edition of BPL. In addition to that, Steve Smith and David Warner, who are currently serving a one-year ban, are also going to be part of the league. Below are the complete squads of all the seven teams who will be contesting for the silverware in BPL 2019.

Chittagong Vikings:

Sunzamul Islam, Sikandar Raza, Luke Ronchi, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Shahzad, Robbie Frylinck, Mosaddek Hossain, Abu Jayed, Khaled Ahmed, Nayeem Hasan, Cameron Delport, Dasun Shanaka, Mohammad Ashraful, Robiul Haque, Yasir Ali, Nihaduzzaman, Najibullah Zadran, and Shadman Islam.

Comilla Victorians:

Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shoaib Malik, Asela Gunaratne, Liam Dawson, Abu Hider Rony, Anamul Haque, Ziaur Rahman, Shahid Afridi, Thisara Perera, Mosharraf Hossain, Mohammad Shahid, Shamsur Rahman, Sanjit Saha, Evin Lewis, Waqar Salamkheil, and Aamer Yamin.

Dhaka Dynamites:

Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Hazratullah Zazai, Andre Russell, Rubel Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Rony Talukdar, Shuvagata Hom, Andrew Birch, Ian Bell, Qazi Onik, Mohammad Asif Hasan, and Naim Sheikh.

Khulna Titans:

Mahmudullah, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Carlos Brathwaite, Dawid Malan, Jahurul Islam, Shariful Islam, Taijul Islam, Al-Amin, Zahir Khan, Sherfane Rutherford, Subashis Roy, Junaid Siddique, Mahidul Islam Ankon, Tanvir Islam, Lasith Malinga, Yasir Shah, Brendan Taylor, and Paul Stirling.

Rajshahi Kings:

Mominul Haque, Mehidy Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Zakir Hasan, Qais Ahmad, Christiaan Jonker, Soumya Sarkar, Fazle Mahmud, Arafat Sunny, Alauddin Babu, Isuru Udana, Laurie Evans, Marshall Ayub, Kamrul Islam, Ryan ten Doeschate, Seekkuge Prasanna, Mohammad Sami, and Mohammad Hafeez.

Rangpur Riders:

Mashrafe Mortaza, Nazmul Islam, Mohammad Mithun, Chris Gayle, Alex Hales, AB de Villiers, Shafiul Islam, Sohag Gazi, Farhad Reza, Mehedi Maruf, Ravi Bopara, Rilee Rossouw, Nahidul Islam, Nadif Chowdhury, Abul Hasan, Benny Howell, and Oshane Thomas.

Sylhet Sixers:

Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Liton Das, Sohail Tanvir, David Warner, Sandeep Lamichhane, Afif Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Towhid Hridoy, Fabian Allen, Mohammad Irfan, Nabil Samad, Ebadat Hossain, Alok Kapali, Jaker Ali, Gulbadin Naib, Andre Fletcher, Mehedi Hasan Rana, Patrick Brown, and Nicholas Pooran.

Match Fixtures

The league will take place in five phases and three cities of Bangladesh - Phase 1 in Dhaka, Phase 2 in Sylhet, Phase 3 in Dhaka, Phase 4 in Chittagong, and Phase 5 in Dhaka. Besides, all the playoff matches will also take place in Phase 5.

Note: the First match of the day will be played at GMT 8:00 AM and the second match of the day will be played at GMT 1:00 PM. And, if there is the only game on a particular day, it will be played at GMT 1:00 PM.

Phase 1 (Dhaka) - (5 January - 13 January, 2019): Sher-e-Bangla Stadium

5 January 2019: Rangpur Riders vs Chittagong Vikings

5 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Rajshahi Kings

6 January 2019: Comilla Victorians vs Sylhet Sixers

6 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Rangpur Riders.

8 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Khulna Titans

8 January 2019: Comilla Victorians vs Rangpur Riders

9 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Chittagong Vikings.

9 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Rajshahi Kings.

11 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Rangpur Riders

11 January 2019: Comilla Victorians vs Rajshahi Kings

12 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Khulna Titans

12 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Sylhet Sixers

13 January 2019: Rangpur Riders vs Rajshahi Kings

13 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Comilla Victorians

Phase 2 (Sylhet) - (15 January - 19 January, 2019): Sylhet International Cricket Stadium

15 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Rajshahi Kings

15 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Comilla Victorians

16 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Rajshahi Kings

16 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Rangpur Riders

18 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Dhaka Dynamites

18 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Comilla Victorians

19 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Rangpur Riders

19 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Khulna Titans

Phase 3 (Dhaka) - (21 January - 23 January, 2019): Sher-e-Bangla Stadium

21 January 2019: Comilla Victorians vs Rajshahi Kings

21 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Chittagong Vikings

22 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Rangpur Riders

22 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Comilla Victorians

23 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Rajshahi Kings

23 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Sylhet Sixers.

Phase 4 (Chittagong) (25 January - 30 January, 2019): Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium

25 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Rajshahi Kings

25 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Rangpur Riders.

26 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Khulna Titans

26 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Rajshahi Kings

28 January 2019: Khulna Titans vs Comilla Victorians

28 January 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Rangpur Riders

29 January 2019: Rangpur Riders vs Rajshahi Kings

29 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Comilla Victorians.

30 January 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Dhaka Dynamites

30 January 2019: Sylhet Sixers vs Rajshahi Kings

Phase 5 (Dhaka) (1 February - 8 February, 2019) – Sher-e-Bangla Stadium

1 February 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Comilla Victorians

1 February 2019: Chittagong Vikings vs Sylhet Sixers

2 February 2019: Comilla Victorians vs Rangpur Riders

2 February 2019: Dhaka Dynamites vs Khulna Titans

4 February 2019: Eliminator (Third-ranked team vs Fourth-ranked team in the point table)

4 February 2019: Qualifier 1 (First-ranked team vs Second-ranked team in the point table)

6 February 2019: Qualifier 2 (Loser of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Eliminator)

8 February 2019: Final (Winner of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Qualifier 2)

9 February 2019: Reserve Day (Final)

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