Rahul axed as India try Rohit as opener against South Africa
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India axed struggling opener KL Rahul and handed Rohit Sharma a chance to revive his stopstart test career after selecting the limited-overs stalwart for next month’s three-match series against South Africa.
Rahul has gone 12 test innings without a 50-plus score and struggled in the recent tour of West Indies where India won both the matches to top the World Test Championship table.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly was among those who felt Rohit, who smashed a record five hundreds at the 50-overs World Cup in England and finished as the tournament’s top scorer, should partner Mayank Agarwal at the top of the order.
“We want to give Rohit Sharma an opportunity to open the innings in tests,” chief selector MSK Prasad said after naming the 15-member squad.
Prithvi Shaw would have been Agarwal’s automatic partner but the 19-year-old is currently serving a doping ban.
The only player in the world with three double hundreds in one-day internationals, Rohit averages nearly 40 in tests batting in the middle order.
The 32-year-old has struggled to replicate his limited-overs heroics in the 27 tests he has played so far and must reinvent himself as an opener in the long form as well.
Punjab top order batsman Shubman Gill got his maiden test call-up, while the selectors opted for two wicketkeepers in Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha.
Spin all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was preferred ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin in both the tests in West Indies, has been retained in the squad along with the off-spinner with leftarmer Kuldeep Yadav as the third slow bowling option.
Virat Kohli and his team face South Africa in the first test at Visakhapatnam from Oct 2. Pune and Ranchi host the other two matches.
India squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill CAPE TOWN (Reuters) Endurance athlete Cameron Bellamy will attempt an unprecedented 150km swim from Barbados to St Lucia today in an effort to complete the longest ocean swim in history.
The attempt, which is dependent on ocean currents and the weather, has been hastily arranged after he had to abandon a planned 166km swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys, which he said was stopped by American authorities.
“I was denied the licence for my support boat to make the trip, the U.S. government is very hawkish on Cuba right now and declined everything,” Bellamy told Reuters in a telephone interview from Barbados.
Instead, he has arranged an equally testing alternative.
“We’ve managed to put the planning for this one together in just a matter of weeks. Last year I did a 41-hour swim around Barbados of 100km — the fourth longest unassisted swim ever — which has me mentally confident about tackling the longer distance and I’ve been training pretty hard for the last six months.”
The 37-year-old South African, who has rowed across the Indian Ocean and completed seven different open water channel swims around the world, will wait for optimal conditions before setting off.
He will battle not only the inevitable fatigue but the danger of sharks, jellyfish and the agony of saltwater mouth.
“One of the hardest things to deal with is being in the salt water for so long, especially your mouth,” he said. “When I swam around Barbados that was the most painful thing I experienced, especially the last hours. It was agony.”
He applies coconut oil and honey to his lips and flushes with mouthwash after hourly feeds. To defend against sharks, shields are placed in the water around him emitting an electrical pulse that keeps them away.
The ocean currents will determine for how long Bellamy has to swim.
“If the currents are favourable it could allow me to do it in anything between 45 to 72 hours,” he said yesterday.
Last month, Bellamy completed two 24-hour swims off the Barbados coast as part of his final preparations, starting at 7am and going through the night.
“The last one went really well and although I’ll be pushing some boundaries, I couldn’t have prepared any better,” he said.
“Key out there is to not be negative. My thoughts will probably be going a little crazy in the first hours but I want to slip into a meditative state as I swim.
“I find that if my thoughts do start turning negative, especially in the latter half of the swim, then I will set myself short-term goals that help to motivate me.”
He is watched constantly by supporters paddling kayaks close by with the support boat alongside.
“It’s the longest and toughest thing I’ve ever taken on but I feel prepared,” he added.
The Marathon Swimmers Federation recognises a 124.4km swim by Chloe McCardel from the south of Eleuthera Island to Nassau in the Bahamas five years ago as the longest ocean swim.