The match will take place at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Friday morning.
Altogether, three matches will be played on the opening day. Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi and Uttara Sporting Club will lock horns at Fatullah while Legends of Rupganj will face Brothers Union at BKSP’s field number three in Savar.
This time though, most of the national team players touring New Zealand are skipping the DPDCL. But many local stars, who are not part of the national team now, are playing in the prestigious domestic league.
Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud on Thursday said the tournament will be very competitive.
“If you ask me to rate Dhaka League, I will say this is the most competitive domestic tournament in Bangladesh,” he said.
Mahmud believes DPDCL can help national players.
“Dhaka League can be a perfect stage for the national player to prepare for the World Cup. The wickets are mostly batting-friendly similar to those of England,” the former Bangladesh captain said.
Performing well with bat and ball will help boost the players’ confidence, he said.
Star cricketer Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim decided to skip the league and focus on their fitness ahead of the World Cup. Shakib Al Hasan is also sidelined due to a finger injury. He started strength training from Tuesday.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the ODI captain, will play for Abahani. But it is still unclear when he will join them.
Every team can have one foreign recruit in its playing XI.
Here is the list of foreign recruits of the participating teams: Kaushal Silva (Abahani), Saad Nasim (Prime Doleshwar), Ashok Menaria (Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity), Chirag Jani (Brothers Union), Parvez Rasool (Gazi Group Cricketers), Bipul Sharma (Mohammedan), Uday Kaul (Shinepukur), Asela Gunaratne and Upul Tharanga (Sheikh Jamal), Sudip Chatterjee and Abhimanyu Easwaran (Prime Bank), and Rishi Dhawan (Legends of Rupganj).
The other two teams, Uttara Sporting Club and BKSP, are yet to announce the names of their foreign recruits.