Rohit Sharma to skip entire NZ Test series, Kohli opts out of 1st game; new support staff checks in
New Delhi, Nov 11: India's newly-appointed T20 captain Rohit Sharma is set to be rested from the two-match Test series against New Zealand while Virat Kohli will miss the opening match as a "mentally and physically exhausted" Team India gets down to workload management during the home assignment.
Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead the side in the opening Test in Kanpur as Kohli extends his break after opting out of the three-match T20 series starting November 17 in Jaipur.
It is learnt from a reliable BCCI source that the squad has been finalised after a meeting of the selection committee on Thursday but a formal announcement is still awaited.
Other bigwigs who will sit out both the Tests, to be held in Kanpur and Mumbai, are wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, and the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
Rohit will take this break after leading the team in the T20 series. The Tests are scheduled to start on November 25 in Kanpur.
Kohli will be back for the second game in Mumbai from December 3. The Indian Test and ODI captain has spoken extensively about the bubble fatigue and how it has been taking a toll on the players mentally.
In Pant's absence, Wriddhiman Saha will take over the wicket-keeping duties with KS Bharath acting as the second keeper for the series.
The 28-year-old Bharath, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, has only played in the IPL, signed up by Royal Challengers Bangalore, this year.
He was among the five standby players for the home Test series against England this year.
The rest of the squad comprises the usual suspects with Test regulars like Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara and Mayank Agarwal expectedly finding their way in.
New support staff checks in:
As was expected, Paras Mhambrey will join the team as the new bowling coach replacing Bharat Arun, whose tenure ended with India's campaign in the T20 World Cup.
Arun and head coach Ravi Shastri's stint came to a halt with the team's last group stage match against Namibia.
Mhambrey is close to new head coach Rahul Dravid and was part of the support staff during a second-string India's tour of Sri Lanka in July this year where Dravid served as head coach.
Vikram Rathour has been retained as the batting coach after he reapplied for the position, while T Dilip is the new fielding coach.
Dravid, it is learnt, wanted Abhay Sharma to be the fielding coach but the Cricket Advisory Committee has gone with Dilip, who had travelled with the Indian team during the July tour of Sri Lanka.
The 39-year-old was the fielding coach of the Hyderabad team and has also worked with the India A side in the past.
Likely squad for Test series against New Zealand:
Ajinkya Rahane (captain), K L Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, KS bharath (wk), Ravindra Jadeja.
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I ran to save my life: London-based singer recalls chaos at Messi event in Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): What was meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime musical tribute to football legend Lionel Messi turned into a harrowing experience for London-based Indian singer Charles Antony, who flew to the country specially to perform at the event at Salt Lake stadium here.
Antony, a Malayali who sings in 18 languages, including Bengali, had composed a special Spanish song for Messi to welcome him in Kolkata, but was not able to sing that as he ran for his life amid chaos during the December 13 event at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan here.
“I ran to save my life,” Antony told PTI, recalling how the celebration descended into mobocracy as crowd control collapsed inside the packed stadium.
Angry fans, many of whom had paid Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000 — and in some cases up to Rs 20,000 in the black market — ran riot at the venue after failing to get even a glimpse of their favourite superstar from Argentina.
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“I had barely seen him. He was smiling, but it was very clear he was uncomfortable,” Antony vividly recalled, even after 10 days had passed.
Positioned on the running tracks near the gallery, the singer was waiting for Messi to complete his lap around the ground when the situation worsened.
Antony saw Messi, his long-time strike partner Luis Suárez and Argentine teammate Rodrigo De Paul being surrounded by many people.
He noticed water bottles, food packets, stones and metal objects being hurled from the gallery. Equipment was on the verge of being damaged, and panic had set in.
“I was lucky I was not injured, and none of my equipment was damaged,” he said.
The singer said there was confusion over reporting time, with instructions given to reach the venue at both 10.30 am and 9.30 am on December 13 for a sound check, and he had not had the opportunity to visit the stadium the previous day.
Personally invited by now-arrested event organiser Satadru Dutta to sing at the Messi events in Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi, Antony had travelled from London and was staying at the Hyatt Hotel here.
Having sung in the presence of Diego Maradona during his visit to Kolkata in 2016, an experience Antony describes as joyous and perfectly managed, the contrast was stark.
“When Maradona came to Kolkata in 2016, I was inside the inner circle. Nothing went wrong then. This time, I was outside the core circle," he said.
Antony said the size of the crowd, on both occasions, was huge.
“This is the first time in my life I saw nearly one lakh people in one place. Luckily, I got the chance to sing a couple of songs at the event. Otherwise, it would have been a waste of travelling all the way from London. And now, I have become the first Indian to sing with Maradona and for Messi," he said.
Antony said people began storming the ground after VVIPs were escorted through an underground exit and former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly left the stadium.
“That’s when the police told me to run to a safe place,” he said.
With no assistance from anyone, the singer grabbed whatever he could, his guitar, cables, mouth organs, and vocal processors, stuffing them into bags.
“Everyone was worried about the VVIPs. Nobody was concerned about my safety,” he said.
With his access tag still hanging around his neck, Antony felt even more vulnerable on that day.
“People misjudged me as one of the organisers. At one point, my life was under threat,” he said.
Police advised him to move towards the centre of the ground to avoid attacks from the galleries, he said.
Eventually, Antony ran all the way back to the hotel, later shifting to another hotel for safety.
“I had no time to look for anyone else. I ran to save my life,” he said.
In the aftermath, Antony tried repeatedly to contact Satadru Dutta to understand what would happen next, but could not reach him.
“There was complete uncertainty. I was getting very agitated,” he admitted.
He also witnessed the heartbreak of fans.
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“People had come from Meghalaya, Assam, Bengaluru just to see Messi. They couldn’t even see Messi and were very disappointed. and I saw many crying,” he said.
Antony clarified that he did not take any remuneration for the performances. The organisers only covered his travel costs from London and his accommodation in India.
Despite the ordeal, he refused to single out Satadru, the organiser, for mismanagement at the stadium.
“I don’t believe Satadru is solely responsible. He (Satadru) tried his best to stop people from coming close to Messi. But some others, possibly VVIPs, were taking selfies. He was visibly helpless. Everything went out of control,” Antony said.
For the singer, the day remains a painful memory, not just because he couldn’t sing for Messi, but because what should have been a celebration of football turned into a fight for survival.
