Joe Denly has been one of the more divisive candidates in terms of public opinion on who should be included in England's final World Cup squad to be named next week. Included as a leg-spinner for Tuesday's third ODI against Pakistan in Bristol, Denly faces his biggest audition yet. We run the rule over the pros and cons of including him in the big show.

Why is Joe Denly playing on Tuesday?

England are keen to test the bench strength of their World Cup squad. He was named in the 15-man provisional squad but, with him having played only one ODI this decade (though he was named in the side for the rained-off match at The Oval), there is still some doubt as to whether his leg-spin bowling is up to the level required. So England have rested Adil Rashid - who is certain to play in the World Cup - and given Denly this opportunity to see what he can do.

So he's on trial?

That's one interpretation, certainly. Though England might stress that he is simply being given some game time with a view to providing Eoin Morgan more information about how to use him. But, yes, this probably is a big game for him. It's not as if he's the first England player to go on trial in Bristol.

Wasn't he a batsman when he first played for England?

Yes, he was. He played nine ODIs and five T20Is as an opening batsman in 2009. He did OK, too, with two half-centuries in those ODIs. He made his Test debut as a batsman over the winter, too, making 69 in the final Test against West Indies. It's still the stronger part of his game and he could well come in at No. 3 in the Ashes. He's scored more than 11,000 first-class runs and taken just 62 wickets. He does have an unwanted record as a batsman, though: he was out first ball on his first-class debut, T20I debut and IPL debut. He was actually out first ball in both his first two T20I games.

So when did he start bowling?

He has always bowled a bit. But it was only really in the summer of 2018 - by which time he was 32 - that he bowled the volume of overs to be taken seriously. He claimed 23 first-class wickets that season - his best tally before that was eight - with another 14 in List A cricket. He started to establish himself in T20 leagues, too, and now has valuable experience in the BPL, PSL, BBL and IPL to draw from. He claimed 20 wickets in England's domestic T20 tournament last summer and claimed 4-19 - the best figures of his career in any form of cricket - when recalled to the England T20I side in Sri Lanka at the end of 2018.

Sounds great.

Maybe. The concern is that, in his entire career, he has taken just 22 List A wickets in England and Wales. The rest of them have come overseas in conditions which may suit his bowling more and against opposition some way below that anticipated in the World Cup. Denly is, without doubt, a good batsman and fine utility cricketer. There's just some doubt as to whether is bowling is up to going into an ODI with his captain requiring a minimum of six or so overs from it.

So his is a bold selection?

Yes. Ed Smith, the head selector, played with him at Kent at the start of Denly's career and has always rated him. He is clearly the driving force behind the selection, but James Taylor and Trevor Bayliss are full of praise for his all-round virtues, too. And with Smith encouraged by his recall of Jos Buttler to England's Test team a year ago - it is hard to remember now, but it was a somewhat contentious decision at the time - he may be confident in trusting his instincts more than ever.

How has Denly looked so far?

He batted quite nicely in the T20I in Cardiff. He hasn't bowled that much. But he started his spell in Cardiff with two long-hops that were thrashed for six and was taken off after one over. He did claim a maiden ODI wicket in Dublin, but it came when Ben Foakes completed a stumping off a leg-side wide. But that's the point, really: he's in the squad as a spin-bowling all-rounder having delivered just 30 balls in his entire ODI career. England really need to find out far more about his bowling at this level.

Who could replace him?

The most like-for-like option would probably be Liam Dawson. He's enjoying a great season in the Royal London One Day Cup - he's seventh in the wickets tally table and has the best economy rate of bowlers to have delivered a minimum of 40 overs - and, until he suffered a side injury in Sri Lanka was in the squad anyway. Bayliss suggested a few days ago he could yet be called into this series for the last couple of games.

Do England need three spinners in their World Cup squad?

Good question. The current thinking of the team management is that they don't require seven seamers (including Ben Stokes) in their squad, so they might as well try and cover a few other bases with the inclusion of a spin-bowling all-rounder. Denly, they argue, doesn't just offer spin-bowling cover: he offers cover for a variety of batting positions and is a fine fielder almost anywhere. They are also aware that, while sides can call-up replacements in the event of injury, the players released cannot be recalled. So they don't want to be in the position where they have to release Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid for the entire tournament just because they can't bowl in a couple of games. For that reason, they seem pretty keen on having that spin-bowling back-up.

What about Joe Root?

Yes, he does offer another spin-bowling option. Last year he delivered 10 overs for 44 runs in an ODI against Australia and his career economy-rate - 5.80 - is respectable. But he has bowled two overs in England's 13 most-recent completed ODIs. It doesn't appear they rate his bowling especially highly.

So one of the seamers will have to miss out?

That remains the likely scenario, but it's not absolutely certain. The fact that Jofra Archer has been given time off to spend at home is revealing: you don't give a man fighting for his place time off. He looks certain to be included in that 15-man squad now. Tom Curran might be the most vulnerable of the seamers now, but he will have a chance to impress on Tuesday and did well with bat and ball in Dublin.

If Dawson is still a selection possibility, shouldn't he be playing now?

Maybe, yes. But that's why this game is so important. Denly is going to be asked to bowl on a good wicket with short boundaries. If he does well, his place in the squad is probably guaranteed. If he has an absolute shocker, Dawson could be called up before the weekend.

That sounds a bit tough on Denly.

It does. But the World Cup is going to be played, on the whole, in such demanding, high-pressure circumstances. Bowlers are going to have to find a way to contain batsmen on these fine batting pitches and Denly will have to be able to cope with such pressure. David Willey was put under similar pressure at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday and came through well. International sport is a tough, competitive business.

Kagiso Rabada is likely to be fit in time for the World Cup. South African fans would welcome that piece of good news, delivered by Cricket South Africa doctor Mohammed Moosajee over the weekend. A recovery is "anticipated" in the next two to three weeks.

Concerns over Rabada's availability for the World Cup surfaced after CSA asked strike bowler to return home from the IPL, where he was instrumental in Delhi Capitals reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

ESPNcricnfo understand CSA told both Capitals and IPL that Rabada had a back niggle and needed rest and recovery time ahead of the World Cup. On Saturday, Moosajee said CSA's medical team was being "extra cautious" in managing Rabada's workload because of his history with back injuries.

"With KG [Rabada]‚ we are extra cautious because of two reasons," Moosajee said on CSA's official website. "He had a back issue that kept him out of the game for a protracted amount of time. Secondly‚ there's his importance in the squad‚ so we're managing his rehab and his return to play very carefully.

"The anticipated recovery period for KG's injury is two to three weeks and we are hopeful he'll make a full recovery to be part of the World Cup squad."

South Africa's preparations have also been affected by injuries to Dale Steyn and Lungi Nigidi. Incidentally Steyn, too, was forced to withdraw from the IPL due a shoulder injury after two matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Ngidi, who plays for Chennai Super Kings, was ruled out at the outset of the IPL, having picked a side strain during the home ODI series against Sri Lanka.

More updates on the availability of Steyn, Ngidi and Rabada are likely this week with South Africa's World Cup squad assembling in Pretoria from Tuesday for a week-long preparatory camp. On his part, Moosajee remained positive. "The selectors have ensured they have enough options on the table but there are some players that have been earmarked as standby players."

Jockey Luis Saez has been suspended 15 racing days by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for his ride on Maximum Security in the Kentucky Derby.

Saez will appeal the decision, his attorney said.

Maximum Security became the first horse in the history of the 145-year-old race to be disqualified from first place due to a race riding incident. He was placed 17th behind Long Range Toddy after stewards determined that he interfered with several horses by drifting out in front of War of Will in the final turn.

According to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Saez was cited for "failure to control his mount and make the proper effort to maintain a straight course thereby causing interference with several rivals that resulted in the disqualification of his mount."

Saez was represented by attorney Ann Oldfather during a film review session with Churchill Downs stewards on May 10. Oldfather also presented a video to the stewards arguing that seventh-place finisher War of Will and his jockey Tyler Gaffalione were actually responsible for the incident.

While the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission allows jockeys to appeal their suspensions, it does not allow the stewards' decision on the disqualification of a horse to be appealed. An attempted appeal by the owners of Maximum Security was swiftly denied last week.

If Saez's appeal is not successful, he will not be able to ride at any track during the 15-day period, which includes the dates May 23-27, May 30-June 2, June 6-9, and June 13-14.

In 1968, Dancer's Image became the first winning horse to be disqualified from the Kentucky Derby when he tested positive for a substance that was banned at the time. He was disqualified three days after the race, and the matter was taken to court. After several years of legal battles and appeals, Forward Pass, who had been elevated to first place after the disqualification, was upheld as the winner.

Neither Maximum Security nor Country House, who was placed first after the disqualification, will race in the Preakness.

Former Kansas City Chiefs head coach and Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham died Saturday after a brief illness. He was 72.

Cunningham devoted his life to the game of football after moving to the United States from Germany shortly after World War II. He spoke no English at the time and ended up finding football as a way to acclimate to the United States.

It became a lifelong love affair with the game, which took him to California for high school, Oregon for college and then all over the United States after graduation. He coached at Oregon, Arkansas, Stanford and California. He ventured to Canada for a year, in 1981, to work in the CFL.

Then he returned to the United States and spent the remainder of his career in the NFL with the Colts, Chargers and Raiders before moving to Kansas City to become the defensive coordinator and then head coach in 1999. He had a 16-16 record with the Chiefs in two seasons. He coached linebackers in Tennessee for three years before returning to the Chiefs as the defensive coordinator for the second time in his career.

The last five years of his on-field coaching career came with the Lions, for whom he was defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2013. The team issued a statement Monday.

"Gunther Cunningham will forever be remembered as one of the great men of our game," it read. "He left a lasting impact on every person who was fortunate enough to work alongside him during his more than 47 years as a coach -- including 34 years in the National Football League, the final eight of which were spent here in Detroit. Our organization is truly honored and proud to have been included in his distinguished coaching legacy. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to his wife, René, and their entire family."

After 2013, Cunningham moved into an off-field coaching role and wasn't on the field for a game for the first time in at least 50 years. That stretch included the time he played in a high school game -- or so he told the story -- the week after he had the anterior cruciate ligament removed from his knee as a high school player.

"I lived without my left knee having an ACL all my life," Cunningham told ESPN in 2017. "In those days, you didn't get hurt. You just kept playing."

That toughness was never questioned -- by his players, his coaches or his future colleagues. While his football record was impeccable, Cunningham was often known for his storytelling in the media. He loved to rave about Leslie O'Neal and Derrick Thomas -- two of his favorite Chiefs. When he was putting together his home office, Cunningham's wife told him she noticed a lot of Chiefs memorabilia.

"She went, 'My god, this is a shrine to Derrick Thomas,'" Cunningham told ESPN in 2017. "I got emotional and I said, 'Let's not talk about that.' There's a tremendous amount of Chiefs memorabilia because I was there off and on for 12 years and coached some really gifted players for you."

As well as he could tell a yarn or dissect an offensive or defensive play on the field, he was equally well-versed on many other topics. Becoming an American citizen in 2010 meant a lot to him after he spent almost his entire life in the country. Former British prime minister Winston Churchill was one of his heroes. He first learned about the man from his grandmother when he was a child in Germany.

"I've seen or heard that speech he made about the island and how we'll never stop fighting and we'll never lose and how the Germans tried to bomb them into oblivion and the English survived, as they always have. They are one of the greatest powers in the world, in our history, and the English navy was a thing to be reckoned with in those days," Cunningham told ESPN in 2014. "If I had my choice in life, other than being a football coach, I'd like to dive all over that water area between Europe and England and I bet you could find something there.

"A lot of things that haven't been found that would lead us to understand our history better and where better to start than the island of England. To me, my generation growing up, that was the war and how they fought and how they survived. To meet people from there is an honor for me."

Cunningham went to England in 2014 when the Lions played the Falcons at Wembley Stadium in London. He was excited to see the culture and to learn more about a place he had heard so much about as a kid but never got to spend any time in. Since leaving Europe as a child in Germany, he had been back only once since -- on a vacation in Italy.

Football, of course, ended up getting in the way of a lot of traveling Cunningham had contemplated doing throughout his life. After he left the NFL, he joined Pro Football Focus, where he used the analytics skills he picked up in his later years in the league to help bolster the football portion of the company. He worked on passing his knowledge forward, teaching how he grades players and being part of an oversight group that made sure things were being seen correctly.

He had set up a small office in a building in suburban Detroit to be his workplace, carrying the televisions up the stairs himself because Cunningham was a man who always liked to do what he could.

Cunningham is survived by his wife, sons Grant and Adam and daughter Natalie.

Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid defended coach Brett Brown Monday amid speculation that the coach's job is at risk because of the team's second-round exit from the playoffs.

Embiid called the idea that Brown might be fired "bulls--," saying, "He's done a fantastic job. He's been there through everything.

"This year I think he grew even more as a coach. He learned, we all learned.

"At the end of the day it comes down to the players. I don't think he should have anything to worry about. He's an amazing coach, a better person. ... If there was someone to blame, I mean, put it all on me."

Before the playoffs began, team owner Josh Harris said he expected the 76ers to at least reach the East final. And at a press conference before the start of the playoffs, Harris refused to say if Brown would return and offered only a lukewarm endorsement of the coach's performance.

Brown has coached the 76ers for six seasons, through a 10-win season in 2015-16, and has been championed by ownership and the front office for having patience through what former general manager Sam Hinkie dubbed "The Process." But the Sixers -- who rebuilt their roster with two blockbuster trades -- had higher expectations this season.

Brown's players have often expressed their admiration and confidence in the coach.

"What he's done for this organization is nothing short of remarkable,'' 76ers guard JJ Redick said Monday. "I would just say this in general, for any NBA team, when you think about a coach, and potentially replacing that coach, you have to consider what coaches are available. I don't feel it necessary to defend Brett to anyone. I think his work speaks for itself.''

The decision on Brown is a crucial one for first-year general manager Elton Brand, who also has to decide how to handle the team's free agents.

Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris and Redick are headed into free agency, with a max contract likely looming for Butler.

"I haven't thought about it too much,'' Butler said Monday. "I've got to sit down and really talk to my team.''

Harris, a trade deadline pickup from the LA Clippers, can also command a max deal from the Sixers. The Sixers are already on the hook for the $121 million left on Embiid's deal and Ben Simmons is a year out from earning a max-level extension.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant will have his strained right calf re-evaluated on Thursday and will miss at least Tuesday's Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, a source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

It's unlikely Durant plays in Thursday's Game 2, according to the source.

Durant injured his calf in the third quarter of Wednesday night's 104-99 Game 5 win over the Rockets in the conference semifinals.

With 2:11 left in the quarter, Durant went up for a jumper over Rockets swingman Iman Shumpert and landed awkwardly. Initially, Warriors personnel were concerned that Durant had suffered an Achilles injury, but an MRI on Thursday confirmed the calf strain.

The Oakland Athletics designated Kendrys Morales for assignment after Sunday's game against the Cleveland Indians, manager Bob Melvin announced Monday.

Melvin made the announcement on SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio.

"Unfortunately, we had to let him go," Melvin said. "I'll tell you what, this guy, maybe he didn't put up big numbers, but this is a terrific teammate."

The A's acquired Morales from the Toronto Blue Jays before the season. With first baseman Matt Olson returning last week after missing 34 games with a hand injury and Morales struggling at the plate, Morales' spot on the roster had been in question.

Morales, 35, was hitting just .204 with one home run and seven RBIs in 108 at-bats. He had made 23 starts at first base this season in Olson's absence.

He had hit at least 20 home runs in each of the previous four seasons and has 212 homers in his 13-year career.

The earned run Casey Mize allowed to the Clearwater Threshers on April 9 was a bit of a cheapie. Mize got the first two outs of the second inning, then clipped the Threshers' No. 6 hitter on a two-strike cutter. That guy stole second, and the next batter blooped a two-strike fastball at the very top of the zone into center field for a single.

"Frustrating," Mize called it. "I got it in on his hands, yet he was able to poke it over second base."

That was the first earned run that Mize, the first overall pick of the Detroit Tigers in last June's draft, allowed this year, coming in his second start. He wouldn't allow another earned run until his seventh start of the season, which came Friday.

For the most part, minor league stats look a lot like major league stats. To pick some random leagues: The OPS champ in the Triple-A International League last year had a .997 OPS. Normal. The ERA title in the Double-A Eastern League went to a guy with a 3.04 ERA. Normal. A very normal 34 homers led the Single-A South Atlantic League. In theory, the only league in professional baseball where incomprehensible numbers should happen is the majors, because that's the only place where there isn't a higher league to move up to. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter which level you glance at: .300 is a good batting average, 100 is a lot of runs batted in, and good pitchers go 13-8.

Then something like Mize happens. In four starts at high-A this year, he allowed just the one frustrating run. That got him bumped up to Double-A, where he threw a no-hitter in his first start. In seven starts total this year, he has a 0.60 ERA, with 40 strikeouts and just three walks.

Every few years, in one of stateside baseball's 16 affiliated minor leagues, somebody breaks the margins. In most cases, that somebody is a superstar -- a future superstar, technically, but really already a superstar who is merely temporarily misidentified as in need of more development.

We have a lot of favorite minor league performances. Most of them tell a story of a player who has no business being in the league he's in, but the stories have subtle (or not subtle) differences. Broadly speaking, there are five types of farcical minor league stat lines:

1. The mostly meaningless lines

For example: Tim McWilliam's .451/.516/.637 line for the 1988 AZL Padres

The mostly meaningless lines tend to be by players who are older than most of their competition: McWilliam was the oldest hitter on his team, which comprised mostly teenagers. This age discrepancy doesn't invalidate what McWilliam did, any more than it invalidates Gary Redus' .462/.559/.787 for the short-season Billings Mustangs in 1978, or Jake Fox's .409/.495/.841 line for Triple-A Iowa in 2009. There were other 21-year-olds in the Arizona League that year, and none of them hit anywhere close to .451. So the batting line is still data. It's just that the fact that he was the oldest player on his team is better data, assuming (as you should) that his team is rational and not assigning players to its affiliates randomly.

(McWilliam never hit .300 again. He reached Triple-A, for two games, and was out of baseball by age 26. Redus had a successful major league career, as a roughly league-average hitter for 13 years. Fox got about 500 big league plate appearances and hit poorly.)

2. The showed-up-too-ready lines

For example: Roger Clemens' 1.33 ERA in Class A and high-A, 1983.

Clemens was the 19th overall pick in the 1983 draft, and the Red Sox had to send him somewhere. So they sent him to Single-A Winter Haven, where he struck out 36 batters and walked none across 29 innings. That got him promoted to Double-A New Britain, and in seven starts (52 innings) he allowed only eight runs. His combined line: 1.33 ERA, 95 strikeouts and 12 walks, one home run allowed, in 81 innings. The next year, when he was in the majors, where he belonged all along, he had the best FIP of any AL starter.

"Think horses, not zebras," doctors are told, and generally speaking, the advice holds for scouts and executives, too: The guy you draft 19th overall could be the greatest pitcher of all time and ready for the majors immediately, as Clemens was. As Dylan Bundy (0.00 ERA in Single-A Delmarva; 40 strikeouts and seven baserunners in 30 innings) probably was, and as Tim Lincecum (15 strikeouts per nine, 1.01 ERA across three minor league levels before his debut) certainly was. But he's almost certainly not, and you can't know otherwise until you've seen it. So first the pitcher goes out and humiliates a bunch of minor leaguers. We have little choice but to accept that wasting a few of the player's best innings in Delmarva is the cost of living uncertainly.

3. The transformed-too-abruptly lines

For example: Jim Thome's .373/.503/.754 in the Appalachian League in 1990.

Thome, a 13th-round pick, debuted with Cleveland's instructional league team in 1989. He batted 213 times and didn't homer once. He slugged .296. Jim Thome!

So he started the next season in short-season ball, an appropriate assignment, but something had changed in the offseason: He homered every 10th at-bat and walked every fifth in Burlington.

Most future stars show up to the minors too young, too undeveloped, too flawed, good enough to play well in the minors but certainly not good enough to play well in the majors. Then they make progress and move up in the minors, but progress isn't always steady. Sometimes it happens in an offseason. Andruw Jones was already one of the best prospects in baseball entering 1995, with a very Andruw Jonesian .277/.372/.512 line as an 18-year-old the year before. Then he hit .313/.419/.605 in high-A, and then .369/.432/.675 in Double-A, and then .378/.391/.822 in Triple-A -- all in the same year. Suddenly, he was the best prospect in baseball, and one of the best in history.

4. The absolutely-unrepeatable-circumstances lines

For example: Rick Ankiel's .286/.364/.638 hitting line, and 1.33 ERA pitching line, for rookie ball Johnson City in 2001.

Ankiel, at this point, had already been the No. 1 prospect in baseball; he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and started two postseason games. But he was also only 21, a little old but not that old for rookie ball, where the average player was 20.

He had been sent down by the Cardinals to try to figure out his yips, which had caused him to walk 53 batters in his previous 32 innings (including in the postseason and Triple-A). Again, he wasn't that old, but he was just so much more advanced than anybody else in the league that year, and in 88 innings he struck out 158 -- more than 16 per nine innings -- and walked only 18. I'm not sure professional baseball has a more dominant pitching line this century than Ankiel's.

But even wilder, he also DH'd on his off days, and he was one of the best half-dozen hitters in the league, homering 10 times in 105 at-bats and edging Joe Mauer for the second-best OPS in the league. This was all an artificial setup, both entirely appropriate for the situation and perhaps never to be repeated.

5. The unfortunate-modern-service-time-rules lines

For example: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s .402/.449/.671 in Double-A New Hampshire in 2018.

By May of last year, it was already fashionable to wonder why Guerrero wasn't already in the majors, but of course the answer was obvious: service time shenanigans. The Blue Jays could make the coldly rational, clearly unfun calculation to keep Guerrero in the minors because (A) the big league club was going nowhere that season, no matter where Guerrero played and (B) keeping him in the minors would keep him under the club's control further into the future. This is a new kind of farcical stat line, one that has become far more common in recent years:

Kris Bryant's .355/.458/.702 in a half-season of Double-A in 2014 would probably never have existed a generation ago, because the Cubs would have moved him up three weeks into it. Same, perhaps, for George Springer's .353/.459/.647 line over a month in Triple-A in 2014, when the Astros were holding him back a few weeks to gain an extra year of free agency. Every day the Marlins' Zac Gallen spends in Triple-A -- his ERA just above 1.00, his strikeout and walk rates outrageous -- feels more artificial.

That's why we're, uh, blessed with Mize's line this year, and why he will quite possibly spend the rest of the season (and a few weeks of next) adding to it. The minor leagues are mostly a place for young players to develop -- a good purpose. Increasingly, they're a place for teams to slow their best prospects down.

A player who slugs .800 in the low minors usually doesn't belong in the low minors, and a pitcher with a 1.00 ERA in Double-A belongs on national TV, not MiLB.tv. But you can't predict baseball prospects, and some farces are inevitable. When Juan Soto unexpectedly hit .373/.486/.814 in A-ball last season, the Nationals reacted quickly, and by mid-May -- far earlier than expected -- Soto's minor league performance had earned him a spot in the majors. His original assignment to Hagerstown was a small failure, but an honest one, and it was part of the process of getting Soto where he truly belonged. Unfortunately, increasingly, the farcical minor league line is by design. If Mize dominates the minors like this all year, it won't be charming. It'll be a policy failure.

Some other extraordinary minor league lines:

• Tony Gwynn hit .462/.490/.725 in Double-A (99 PA).

• Howie Kendrick hit .368 in rookie ball, then .367 in A-ball, then .384 in high-A, then .342 in Double-A, then .369 in Triple-A.

• Mariano Rivera had a 0.17 ERA -- one earned run in 52 innings -- in rookie ball. He was used as a reliever, but when he started the final game of the season, he threw a no-hitter.

• Julio Urias had a 2.48 ERA and 11 strikeouts per nine when he was 16, pitching in the Midwest League, where the average pitcher was 22.

Olympic marathoner forms part of 10-strong GB team in Romania

Olympic marathoner Aly Dixon is to step up to ultra running later this year when she races for Great Britain at the IAU 50km World Championships in Brasov, Romania.

The two-time British marathon champion, who has a best of 2:29:06 for 26.2 miles, or 42.195km, forms part of a 10-strong GB team for the event on September 1.

“An extra 8km can’t be that hard, can it?!” Dixon wrote on Twitter.

“Back in November I told a few people I wanted to try for a sixth World Champs team this September,” added the 40-year-old, who competed at the World Half Marathon Championships in 2009, 2014 and 2016, plus the World Championships marathon in 2011 and 2017.

“They said go for it, we believe you can do it. I don’t think they expected that these were the champs I was on about!”

An extra 8km can't be that hard, can it?! ?
Back in November I told a few people I wanted to try for a 6th World Champs team this September. They said go for it, we believe you can do it. I don't think they expected that these were the champs I was on about! ?#NotFinishedYet https://t.co/zAE9stUEdZ

— Aly Dixon (@alydixon262) May 13, 2019

The Brasov event will be the first edition of the 50km championships since 2016, when GB won women’s team gold and men’s team silver.

Hannah Oldroyd was a member of that gold medal-winning team three years ago and returns to the fold in 2019. Dixon and Oldroyd will be joined on the women’s team by Julie Briscoe, Danielle Nimmock and Helen Davies, who revised her marathon personal best to 2:34.08 in Brighton last month.

The men’s team includes Paul Martelletti and Lee Grantham, plus Dan Nash and Alex Milne who are selected after lowering their marathon PBs in recent weeks, posting times of 2:18.51 and 2:20.08 respectively.

Kevin Rojas will also receive his first British vest after the call-up.

GB team

Men

Lee Grantham
Paul Martelletti
Alex Milne
Dan Nash
Kevin Rojas

Women

Julie Briscoe
Helen Davies
Aly Dixon
Danielle Nimmock
Hannah Oldroyd

Britain's Kyle Edmund has suffered his fourth straight first-round defeat, losing 6-4 4-6 6-2 to Spain's Fernando Verdasco at the Italian Open.

Since being knocked out in the second round of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last month, Edmund has lost in Monte Carlo, Munich, Madrid and Rome.

Ranked 14th in the world in October, the Englishman is now down at 27th.

Verdasco goes on to play Austria's Dominic Thiem in the second round.