Wales scrum-half Kieran Hardy has been ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations after damaging a hamstring in the Triple Crown win against England.

Wales are confident Cardiff Blues' Tomos Williams will be fit again after suffering a hamstring injury in the opening victory against Ireland.

Wales hope fly-half Dan Biggar will be fit to face Italy on 13 March.

The Northampton half-back limped off against England and was replaced by Callum Sheedy who produced an impressive 13-point performance. Wales will find out next week if Biggar will be available.

At scrum-half, Wales should have three selection options in Gareth Davies, Tomos Williams and Lloyd Williams with nobody called up to replace Hardy.

His Scarlets' team-mate Davies came on as a replacement against England, while Lloyd Williams was called into the squad as cover for namesake Tomos.

Wales clinched the Triple Crown with victory over England and can win the Grand Slam by defeating Italy in Rome and France in Paris on 20 March.

Dragons back rower Aaron Wainwright and Ospreys centre Owen Watkin have been released by Wales to play for the regional sides in the Pro14 derby on Saturday evening.

The San Jose Barracuda began their season with an unforgettable road trip -- the team got stuck in Texas for a week as the state was ravaged by a devastating winter storm and power crisis.

It's a classic minor league tale, featuring bus hijinks, close calls and 50 frozen DiGiorno pizzas. Combine that with the challenges of staging a season through a pandemic and ... you'll have to hear how it all unfolds.

But the story actually begins in Arizona. Due to Santa Clara County's contact sports ban, the Sharks' AHL affiliate relocated its training camp from California to Chandler, Arizona.

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Nick Gialdini (hockey operations, video coach): I went down there on December 27th, and we thought, oh, you know, maybe a month. And then we finally started to get our schedule and got an idea of how long we'd really be gone.

Jaycob Megna (team captain): We ended up being down there for about two months.

Nick Nollenberger (PR, broadcaster): The guys made the most of it; they all had a really good attitude. Junior leagues haven't started up yet, so we had a lot of extra guys too. The setup wasn't ideal. They would give us ice time, but our locker room was a big wedding tent in a parking lot. The American League is still a high level, but sometimes you get reminders that you aren't in the NHL yet. Looking at the wedding tent was one of those moments. We're in the minors.

Mike Murphy (equipment manager): I don't expect to ever have to do anything remotely like that ever again. We were in a big circus tent. We had 38 guys in camp. Where we stored our gear, to dry it out, was the farthest distance possible. We had to wheel all of these racks across uneven pavement. Stuff is rattling off, breaking, you name it.

Roy Sommer (head coach): The organization got a big tent and that's where the guys got dressed in. We practiced, then guys would walk back to the hotel and shower. The guys did a good job. They survived.

The Barracuda began their season on a road trip, finishing their preseason with a game against the Henderson Silver Knights on Jan. 29.

Sommer: We were in Vegas and we were supposed to play two games there. We got one game in, then two periods of the next, but one of our players' test results came in positive so we had to shut that game down.

Gialdini: That kind of threw everything into panic mode. We were supposed to be traveling back to Arizona that day. So our trainer said, "Hey, we're not traveling." So I had to lock down 50 rooms in Las Vegas for a few days. We think it ended up being a false positive.

Sommer: We had to quarantine in Vegas for four days in our hotel rooms.

The team is cleared to travel back to Arizona. The Barracuda have a two-game series against the Tucson Roadrunners on Feb. 7 and 8, before heading to Austin, Texas.

Murphy: The Texas trip was like the light at the end of the tunnel. One more week, and we'll finally be able to come home.

Megna: That was the plan. It was our last trip and then hopefully return to San Jose, and a return to normalcy.

Nollenberger: Fifteen minutes before we landed, we bumped our way into Austin. Looking out the windows of the plane, there was frost everywhere. Everything was frozen. It didn't look like Texas one bit.

Sommer: I knew we were in trouble when the bus picked us up to go to the hotel. We were on an overpass, probably 100 feet in the air.

Nollenberger: I'm about six or seven rows from the front, and I see at the peak of the overpass that there is a box truck just going sideways. The bus driver says, "Uh oh." You can tell she's trying to pump the brakes.

Sommer: The bus skidded, and started going sideways. The back end hit the railing, and the railing came up to about the tire.

Nollenberger: If you're scared of heights, you're going to be nervous just looking over the overpass, let alone being lifted eight or 10 feet off the ground.

Sommer: If the bus would have gone over the overpass, we would have been done.

Megna: We were all a little on edge.

Sommer: The bus driver got the bus straightened out. She stopped, and I said, "Just inch along." She did. And then once we got off the overpass, she started speeding again. Everyone in the back was like, "Tell her to slow down!"

Megna: That should have been a signal it was going to be a rough week.

Sommer: I've probably spent 100 million miles on a bus coaching as long as I have been in the minors. Been through a lot of bad storms. Coached at Cleveland for five years, but the drivers up there were used to it. Down [in Texas], drivers just didn't have any experience driving in those types of conditions. It was a short trip from the airport to hotel, but it was pretty hairy.

After settling in following the stressful bus ride, the team would pick up its schedule against the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars.

Murphy: We played the first two games and it was normal. Actually really normal. There were fans in the building -- we haven't been around people forever. In California, specifically Santa Clara County, we were locked down pretty much this whole time. So we got to Texas and I forgot how great it is to be at a sporting event with people.

Megna: We heard there was a storm coming and it might be a little dicey. But most of the guys are from Canada or Chicago or places where they get snow, so we didn't think it was that big of a deal. We didn't realize it was Texas, and they're not used to this sort of thing.

Nollenberger: They don't want us playing [three games in three nights] in the AHL anymore, so we had Sunday [Feb. 14] off between games.

Megna: The storm hit overnight.

Sommer: It was actually worse there than the TV was reporting. Everything was shut down. The roads were shut down. The highway. The grocery stores. The hotel we were staying at was running out of food to feed us.

Gialdini: We had probably 15 restaurants that we could walk to, but nothing was open.

Megna: With COVID, we weren't all allowed to hang out. We had a main room in the hotel where we were supposed to get tested, but that turned into kind of a meal room, but it was mostly to take your food and leave. Everyone was in their rooms, we were FaceTiming each other trying to figure out what was going on, trying to put in DoorDash orders but none of them were going through.

Gialdini: The next day me, our strength coach and our equipment manager went to Target and spent about $850 on groceries. We bought Uncrustables. We bought DiGiorno pizza, and some sandwich meat. We thought it was just for lunch, but we didn't know how long we'd need it to last for, so just tried to get through a few meals.

Megna: At first, we were trying to find healthy things to eat. We'd been on the road for two months and ordering food all the time. Without being able to cook, you're trying to stay healthy and stay in some sort of physical condition. Then it was to the point where it was like: Give me whatever you have. You literally felt like you were in elementary school again: Pack your lunch, go to school, and it was Uncrustables and juice boxes and whatever they could put together. Then we had DiGiorno for dinner. They ran out of water; we only drank Gatorade at some point.

Murphy: They are professional athletes, they drink a lot more water than most people do.

Gialdini: We bought 10 cases of water at Target, but after like a day and a half, they were gone. We were really fortunate, the hotel hit us with a water station.

Nollenberger: The guys were bored. Absolutely they were bored. With COVID protocols, they don't want people to hang out in each other's rooms. Guys would be roaming around the hotel, they needed human interaction.

Gialdini: We were supposed to leave Wednesday to fly back. The trip to the airport should have taken 20 minutes on a normal day. It took us an hour and 15.

Megna: Right as we were pulling up, we found out our flight was getting canceled, but our bags were already there. So we all got off the bus, grabbed all the bags from the airlines, put them back on the bus.

Murphy: We travel with about 70 pieces, and we usually have to play Tetris to fit it all underneath. Luckily we had two buses, to keep up with social distancing, so that was a little easier. But we got back to the hotel, and it was like, "What do we do now?"

Gialdini: Luckily before we left the hotel, I told them that there was a chance we could end up back here if we can't get out, could you keep our rooms? Because there were really no hotels in Texas when that happened, because everyone that lost power was moving in. And we had a block of 37 rooms.

Megna: So we got back to the hotel. And then we kind of hunkered down for a couple days.

Joe Will (general manager): We were going to see if we could play some games while the team was stuck. They have some fans in Texas, but for the most part we're not playing in front of fans anyway. But they couldn't safely get all of the people into the rink who needed to work there. And then I think they had a power issue at the rink. The storm was a lot more serious and tragic than people realize. It was a tough, tough situation.

Gialdini: We started getting worried about food again. The hotel didn't have anything for us. We were hearing the grocery stores were long lines and limiting what you could get. We're a pro hockey team and if we go two or three days without food, what's going to happen?

Will: The coach of the Texas Stars [Neil Graham] offered for us to go into the arena, and open up the concession freezers and take out hot dogs and hamburgers and have a barbecue. That was the hospitality they showed.

Megna: I know a lot of their players were without power for quite a bit, so I'm sure they had a rough couple of days as well.

Sommer: [Graham] even said he would cook for us. But they gave away all of the buns to the hospitals, because they were low on food. Then he called his owner, and his owner knew of somebody who was opening up a restaurant.

Gialdini: The restaurant wasn't open yet, but it just so happened the day we had our flight canceled, their entire staff was at the restaurant training, preparing for their soft opening the next week. We all had steaks and french fries in 45 minutes. It was delicious. And then our coach asked their manager, "Hey, do you think you could do dinner?" The guy was like "Yeah, absolutely." Our bus went back there that night and they made steak sandwiches for the guys, which were really good too.

Megna: Honestly that restaurant was unbelievable. If I'm ever back in Austin, I'll eat back there for sure.

Gialdini: We talked about trying to get out of there, driving to Albuquerque or something just to get out of the winter. But because the roads were so bad, we were worried about traveling at 40 mph for six hours, then getting stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Will: We were looking at other cities we could fly from. Houston and New Orleans, Dallas, even up in Oklahoma, what other city could we get to? It ended up being Houston, but it was dicey -- 165 miles. They did it safely, they talked to highway patrol. And once we got to Houston it was like, we gotta get out, or guys would have had to sleep on the bus.

Gialdini: I told Jaycob Megna, we're throwing a Hail Mary here. If we drop the ball, we might be in serious trouble. But I think the risk is worth the reward. If we didn't get on that flight Thursday, we would have been stuck until Saturday, or probably Sunday when the weather warmed up.

The team makes the flight back to Arizona on Feb. 18, but on the way to the airport, finds out that the Tucson Roadrunners, its upcoming opponent, has a cluster of COVID-19 cases.

Megna: We were supposed to go to Tucson and play three games, but those got canceled, which is probably a blessing because we hadn't skated in a week.

Murphy: We still had to go back to Chandler because we were on this long trip, and the guys had all of their personal items there. All of their wardrobe, with all of their clothes, their golf bags. You know, the essentials. Clothes and golf bags.

Gialdini: We landed in Phoenix at like 10 p.m. on Thursday. I had all of the guys on flights to San Jose by Friday.

Murphy: The equipment truck, and the few guys on the team that brought our cars, did the 12-hour ride together.

Megna: My wife and newborn daughter were in San Jose, so it was exciting to get to them. I think I did the drive in 10 hours. We were definitely moving.

Will: When we were in Texas we had to follow protocol, but a lot of hotels also just shut their gym down. The guys were doing things like planks, in their room, outside, in the halls, whatever they could do. They still tried to work out. But when you don't skate for a few days, you're going to be a little rusty.

Megna: We got to San Jose on a Saturday [Feb. 20]. We had Sunday off. We skated Monday, Tuesday. Then someone on the Sharks had COVID, so Wednesday practice was canceled, Thursday practice canceled. Thursday game canceled. Then we were able to practice Friday.

Will: We ended up being off 12 days in a row, nearly two weeks between games. Then we play Saturday [Feb. 27] against Ontario. And we were rusty.

Megna: We were down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes.

Nollenberger: We were completely tired, guys looked out of sorts. They were losing battles; felt like they were a step behind.

Will: And then the guys came back and scored six, and won the game 6-3.

Gialdini: Playing through COVID, as a whole, has been really challenging. Like, we had two games this weekend. In a normal world, guys would go out to the bars or hang out after. You kind of lose that chemistry aspect. So I'd like to think the experience in Texas brought us together a little bit, because we all knew we were in a hairy situation, and we were all going through it together.

Will: Roy Sommer likes to take a team bonding trip every fall. He takes the guys camping, and things like that. And this year he was really sad, because he missed it. We were laughing, but he kind of got that and more. Foraging for food. Getting blankets to sleep in. We have some guys who are 18, our oldest guys are still younger than 30, so it was a lot of life situations a lot of them haven't had to be in before.

Sommer: They went through a lot. But they held up pretty good.

The English Football Association has announced that the Women's FA Cup will return on March 31 after it was suspended in January as the United Kingdom went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The women's competition is considered "non-elite" at this stage as the 23 clubs from the Women's Super League don't enter until the fourth round and under UK guidelines it was not allowed to continue.

The FA's women's professional game director Kelly Simmons had said previously that tossing a coin to decide the second and third round ties "might be the only way" to complete the competition.

However, that outcome has been avoided and the only first round tie left will be played on March 31.

The second round will kick off on April 4 before the third round is completed on April 11.

The fourth round, which is where the Women's Super League teams enter, will begin on April 18.

The FA also released the ties for these rounds with holders Manchester City facing Aston Villa at home in the fourth round.

Chelsea will come up against London City Lionesses while Arsenal will have to wait a while to see who they face with four teams still waiting to play ties.

Manchester United will travel to Burnley and 2019-20 runners up Everton will welcome Durham FC.

The dates for the later rounds of the competition have yet to be announced.

Liverpool will return to Budapest to play RB Leipzig in the their Champions League round-of-16 second leg match due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, European football's governing body UEFA said on Thursday.

Liverpool, who beat Leipzig 2-0 in the first leg on Feb. 16 in the Hungarian capital, cannot host Leipzig at Anfield because the Bundesliga team would have to undergo 10 days of isolation upon returning from the United Kingdom.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

The first leg, originally scheduled to be held at the Red Bull Arena in Germany, was shifted to Budapest after German authorities denied Liverpool entry into the country due to COVID-19 protocols.

The second leg will now be held at the Puskas Arena on March 10.

"UEFA is able to officially confirm that the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 second leg match between Liverpool FC and RB Leipzig will now be played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest," UEFA said in a statement.

"UEFA would like to express its gratitude to Liverpool FC and RB Leipzig for their support and close cooperation, as well as the Hungarian Football Federation for their assistance and agreeing to stage the match."

Crystal Palace defender Patrick van Aanholt was subjected to racist abuse on Instagram following Wednesday's Premier League draw at home to Manchester United.

Van Aanholt tweeted: "Why we kneel..." with a photo of the racist messages he received on Instagram after the goalless draw at Selhurst Park, where he saw a close range effort saved by United goalkeeper Dean Henderson in the 90th minute.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Players in the Premier League have been taking a knee before matches since July, initially in support of the "Black Lives Matter" movement before the Premier League and English Football League linked the gesture to their own anti-racism campaigns.

Manchester United trio Axel Tuanzebe, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, Chelsea's Reece James, West Bromwich Albion's Romaine Sawyers, Southampton's Alex Jankewitz and Arsenal's Willian and Eddie Nketiah have all been victims of online racist abuse in recent months.

The increase in online abuse of players has prompted English soccer bodies to put pressure on social media companies to tackle the problem.

Instagram has announced measures to deal with online abuse, including removing accounts of people who send abusive messages, and developing new controls to help reduce the abuse people see.

MS Dhoni has landed in Chennai. That means the Chennai Super Kings are back in town ahead of IPL 2021. Dhoni reached Chennai on Wednesday evening for the Super Kings preparatory camp, which is set to begin on March 9. Among the other Super Kings players that will join Dhoni in the camp, which will be held at the MA Chidambaram stadium, are the batting pair of Ambati Rayudu and Ruturaj Gaikwad along with the uncapped Tamil Nadu players.

According to Kasi Viswanathan, the Super Kings' chief executive officer, Suresh Raina, the second-most senior player in the franchise, is expected to join the camp at some point next week. Viswanathan said that the majority of the squad, along with head coach Stephen Fleming and the other overseas support staff, are expected to assemble around March 18. Former India fast bowler L Balaji, who is the Super Kings' bowling coach, along with fielding coach Rajeev Kumar, will assist Dhoni during the initial part of the camp.

Ravindra Jadeja, who has been ruled of the Test and T20I segments of India's series against England due to a finger surgery he underwent during the Test series in Australia, will be joining the Super Kings only in the first week of April. Jadeja is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, and earlier this week posted videos and pictures of him returning to active training. It is not clear if he will picked for the three-match ODI series against England, scheduled in Pune in late March.

"The camp will begin with all available players from March 9. The tentative plan is to go on until the tournament starts," Viswanathan said. Viswanathan pointed out that the Super Kings will operate out of bio-secure environment, a mandatory requirement during the pandemic. Incidentally, several members of the Super Kings contingent tested positive - including the pair of Gaikwad and fast bowler Deepak Chahar - last August, immediately after landing in Dubai for the 2020 IPL. The franchise has decided to be extra vigilant this time around.

Asked whether the franchise planned to vaccinate players, Viswanathan said no firm decision had been taken. "All the players, coaching staff and those part of the team bubble who arrive to Chennai will be in quarantine for five days at the team hotel, where they cannot come out of the room during this period," Viswanathan said. Post quarantine all members in the bubble will undergo testing before starting the camp. Testing will carry on every fifth day.

Ahead of IPL 2020, the Super Kings were the only team to conduct a preparatory camp before heading to the UAE. However once more than a dozen positive cases were reported from the Super Kings contingent in the UAE, questions were raised about how secure the camp was in Chennai.

Vishwanathan said that the franchise had taken all necessary precautions last year, too. He said crowds and media would not be able to enter the ground to watch the preparatory camp. Also, the groundstaff and security at the venue would be undergoing testing and stay away when the squad is training. "The entire staff at the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, along with ground staff and security, will be tested frequently."

Welcome to day one of our live report of the fourth India-England Test from Ahmedabad. Join us for updates, analysis and colour. You can find our traditional ball-by-ball commentary here

*Most recent entry will appear at the top, please refresh your page for the latest updates. All times are local

India 24 for 1 (Sharma 8*, Pujara 15*) trail England 205 (Stokes 55, Lawrence 46, Patel 4-68) by 181 runs

England fought the conditions, a well-tuned India attack, and the internal momentum of their own fading batting fortunes to try and stay in contention on the first day of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad. The best that could be said of England's total of 205 was that it was more than they had achieved across two innings on the same ground last week; the worst, that there is no team more adept than India at making such hard graft look inadequate.

Having won the toss and chosen to bat, there was no doubt that England had left runs on the table. Only Ben Stokes managed to fashion a half-century, and the highest partnership of the innings was 48. Since piling up 578 in benign conditions at the outset of the series in Chennai, England's batsmen have yet to produce another fifty stand.

Arguably things could have been worse. With Axar Patel continuing his fine debut series by claiming four more wickets - taking his tally to 22 at 10.81 - and Joe Root falling cheaply to the bristling Mohammed Siraj early in the day, England's middle and lower order, strengthened by the presence of the recalled Dan Lawrence at No. 7, staved off complete collapse. James Anderson then struck with his third ball, Shubman Gill trapped lbw, to ensure that India had to plot a watchful course through to the close.

4.40pm: Immaculate Anderson

Hard to fault Anderson's new-ball spell, with figures of 5-5-0-1. It's been a typically masterful effort, with perfect lines in the off-stump channel and good lengths.

It's been a slightly less tidy start for Jack Leach, with Cheteshwar Pujara - whom he has dismissed three times in the series - using his feet to throw him off his plans, but Leach will not be overly worried just yet.

4.30pm: Turning to spin

Given the XI they have picked, England didn't have much choice but to go to spin early - and here's Jack Leach on for a bowl in the sixth over. He has had the most success for England against Rohit, with four dismissals in the series, so this could be an intriguing battle before the close.

Meanwhile, no problems with social distancing in this stand:

4.10pm: Gilly golly gone!

England get the perfect start in defence of a small total, as James Anderson wins an lbw appeal in his first over. Shubman Gill didn't want to drag himself away, but the delivery was clipping leg stump according to ball-tracking, and that's enough to back up Virender Sharma's on-field call. The key wicket this evening will undoubtedly be the man at the other end, though - as Karthik wrote during the build-up, Rohit Sharma has been in imperious form against the quicks, scoring his runs at a strike rate of 80.98 to help produce match-defining innings at Motera and Chepauk.

Stokes is fit enough, meanwhile, to take the new ball (for the first time in Tests)... and he's slashed through gully by Rohit for the first runs of the innings. Game on.

3.50pm: Red rover

Ashwin bags Leach, denying his team-mate a five-wicket haul, and meaning England have been turned over for 205 - their second-highest score of the series, although that's not saying a great deal. Anderson's reverse-sweep has been the high point for them since tea. Still time in the day for India to face 10-12 overs before the close.

England, meanwhile, have confirmed that Jofra Archer missed this match with the same elbow problem that kept him out of the second Test. And Ben Stokes, England's second seamer in this game, has an "upset stomach", although I think I saw him patrolling the boundary ready to go out on to the field for India's innings.

3.45pm: Milestones/millstones

3.35pm: Patel eyes another five-for

Two in an over for Axar Patel, and England are nine down. Lawrence had played a few nice shots but, in sight of a half-century, the eyes lit up and he was stumped by a distance; Dom Bess then played completely the wrong line to be lbw for 3, despite confidently signalling for a review. Can Nos. 10 and 11, Jack Leach and James Anderson, eke England past 200?

3.30pm: India grip tightens

With India's spinners starting to size up the England tail, time for a chat with Karthik Krishnaswamy about what the home side have done right today.

So, KK. This doesn't look like a 112, 145, 81 sort of pitch... and India lost the toss once again. But with that Pope Foakes wicket, they seem to have a strong grip on the innings?

Yup. It's been brilliantly controlled bowling through the day. This is a better representation of the typical home performance from India over recent years than the last two Tests. They played the waiting game quite a bit, which they hadn't had to do in the second and third Tests. So there were a lot of in-out fields, for example.

R Ashwin has just popped up with a couple of wickets, but the tone early on was set by two new boys, in Axar Patel (with whom England are well acquainted) and Mohammed Siraj...

I actually thought India would go with Umesh Yadav over Siraj, but as you can see, there's not a whole lot to choose between most of their pace options.

Pretty impressive from the two of them, actually, considering it's been a day of constriction rather than running through the opposition. And between them they've played less than 10 Tests? England have batted pretty well, for most part. Stokes was playing a really good innings and could have taken England to a decent position had he stayed in another half an hour or so.

But there's been enough in this pitch for India's bowlers, and they've recognised it and hammered away on a good length. And they've had some luck go their way too...

Yes, Stokes seemed to have found some form, seeing off Ashwin... only for Washington Sundar to pop up with a wicket. But this doesn't look like such a spinning pitch (despite England only picking one frontline seamer), and India will have eyes on a lot more than 200-ish, right?

I don't think it's as flat as some people are making it out to be, though. If England can get to 250, they could still be in it, just about hanging on. How Dom Bess bowls will be a big question. Ashwin's gotten a few to really rip.

And there's something in it for the fast bowlers too, and England have thr... oh, hang on. What's the most overs Ben Stokes has bowled in an innings away from home?

He's done some hard yakka, but not much recently (and only 15 overs in this series to date). Picking the extra batsman seemed an oddly defensive move, though if Lawrence can get them up to that 250-mark you mention, I guess they'll say it's paid off.

Lawrence charges down the pitch against Axar to be stumped for 46.

Oh dear...

3.10pm: And again...

Another "crash of Ash", to abuse a Benaud-ism, and India have their seventh wicket of the day. Ben Foakes has been among England's better batsmen in tough conditions in Chennai and Ahmedabad, but he is lured into a furtive prod early in his innings here, with Ajinkya Rahane making no mistake at slip. England still some way shy of reaching 200, as Dom Bess heads out to the middle.

2.55pm: Ashwin chips in

First wicket of the Test for Ashwin, and again it saws off England short of a fifty partnership. Ollie Pope will feel he's a bit unlucky here, but again the dismissal came as part of a skilful set-up from India's premier spinner. Three balls in succession caused him bother: the first spinning sharply to hit the front pad as Pope lunged forward, the next going on with the arm past the outside edge. With Pope now looking to come down in response, Ashwin went a bit quicker and straight, and struck pay dirt with a catch at short leg - though not in the usual fashion, as Pope inside-edged on to his back knee flap, for Shubman Gill to snap up the chance.

At the other end, Dan Lawrence has produced a few eye-catching shots, but there's a lot of work ahead for him, Ben Foakes and the tail to try and get England up to a competitive total.

2.45pm: Hosts on top?

India open up with the bouncy, piratical Mohammed Siraj and languid YouTuber R Ashwin as their combination after tea. Here's what the Match Day boys thought of proceedings during that previous session.

2.15pm: Tea

England 144 for 5 (Pope 21*, Lawrence 15*) vs India
India claimed two more wickets during a cagey second session, as England struggled to capitalise on winning the toss for the second week in a row in Ahmedabad. Ben Stokes struck a battling half-century but his team reached tea on an anaemic-looking 144 for 5.

England have not managed a fifty partnership since the first innings of the first Test in Chennai, so parlous has their batting been, and two stands in the 40s featuring Stokes could not quite get them out of that rut. Mohammed Siraj continued a lively return to the Test XI by trapping Jonny Bairstow lbw shortly after lunch - the decision backed up by DRS despite Bairstow's quizzical look - and Stokes was also leg-before to Washington Sundar, having recorded his second fifty of the series.

Stokes had appeared to be finding a productive groove, slog-sweeping Sundar for six and reversing Axar Patel to bring up his half-century. But he was pinned once again by offspin, playing for turn that didn't materialise, and it was left to Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence, back at No. 7 to lengthen the batting order, to see England to tea.

2pm: Ahmeda-not-so-bad

Reminder that England haven't passed 200 since the first innings in Chennai, and they're looking in trouble again here. This pitch, meanwhile, seems much friendlier if you've got an idea of how to bat on it. Chances of Virat Kohli ending his wait for a Test hundred in this match?

1.38pm: Stokes slopes off!

England won't be building around Ben Stokes any longer...! He's gone to the offspinner again, although the identity at least is different on this occasion. Washington Sundar was the bowler to slide one on and hit the back pad, with Stokes looking to play for spin. India claim a fifth wicket of the day, well on top of proceedings. Time for England's extra batting depth, with Dan Lawrence coming out at No. 7, to come to the fore.

1.30pm: Stokes smokes

Half-century for Ben Stokes, his second of the series. He started a little scratchily against the skiddy pace of Siraj, and bided his time for long periods against Ashwin - aside from pumping one ball for six over long-off, and advancing to whip four through midwicket. Those moments of calculated aggression were more like the trademark Stokes, and he unfurled a few more shots from his catalogue as the afternoon wore on, slog-sweeping Washington Sundar for six before going to fifty with a reverse-swept four off Patel. It's his first significant score since scoring 82 in the Chennai opener and, with Pope bedding in calmly, something for England to build around.

1.15pm: Steady as she goes

England raise three figures with a late cut from Pope off Patel, and that is drinks in Ahmedabad. Whisper it, but we might have a slightly more normal Test on our hands... although normal is not a word to bandy around at the moment, and sadly news coming out of Pakistan is that the PSL has been postponed after a spate of Covid-19 positives at the tournament.

1.05pm: England in need of some magic...

Straight after finishing his eighth over (all but seven balls of which were delivered to Stokes), Ashwin is removed from the attack and replaced by Axar Patel. So you can ignore me. Anyway, Stokes is beginning to look in tune here, weathering the spell from his nemesis and then pinging a sublime on-drive against Mohammed Siraj for four. Which seems a good time to point you in the direction of George Dobell's 'I was there' feature on Mumbai 2012 and a Kevin Pietersen epic, which is perhaps the definitive tale of overcoming a weakness (in this case, left-arm spin in the shape of Pragyan Ohja) in order to thrive. Andy Flower, Jonathan Trott, Gautam Gambhir all contribute their memories, alongside KP himself. Enjoy.

12.50pm: Ashwin eyes his quarry

R Ashwin is settling into a lengthy spell now, as you'd expect with these two batsmen at the crease. Stokes, as mentioned previously, has had perennial problems against Ashwin, and has played out 38 dot balls from 41 faced; while Ollie Pope has fallen to the offie three times in the series so far. As my colleague Karthik Krishnaswamy wrote, Ashwin's double foxing of Pope with the pink ball last week was a thing of beauty.

12.25pm: Siraj surges through

England's wait for a first 50-partnership since the first innings of the first Test in Chennai goes on... India had two umpire's call reviews from successive deliveries, but importantly in the latter case, Nitin Menon's finger had gone up in response to an appeal from Mohammed Siraj against Jonny Bairstow. The batsman was perplexed, perhaps wondering if he had been given out caught behind, given the ball kissed his back leg and cleared the stumps; but ball-tracking had it clipping the bails, and that's enough to end Bairstow's association with Stokes on 48. Siraj having an excellent day.

11.35am: Lunch

England 74 for 3 (Bairstow 28*, Stokes 24*) vs India
An unbroken partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes settled England after they had won the toss and chosen to bat in the fourth and final Test of the series. Three early wickets for India had hinted at further carnage, with the tourists having failed to reach 200 in their last five innings.

Once again, Axar Patel was the tormentor, striking with his second ball of the match and twice in his first two overs, as England slipped to 15 for 2. Dom Sibley was forewarned by not forearmed against Patel's arm ball, as he played the wrong line and deflected an inside edge on to his leg bail, then Zak Crawley fell tamely, chipping to mid-off when trying to come down the track.

When Joe Root was pinned lbw by Mohammed Siraj from the first ball after drinks, England looked to be in a tailspin once again. But Bairstow and Stokes played a few shots and added 44 together on a comparatively docile surface. Stokes launching R Ashwin for six in his first over after a belated introduction as India's seamers bowled more than half the overs before lunch.

11.15am: Hello... Massive!

Stokes had faced 24 balls by the time of Ashwin's introduction, and he promptly greeted him by pumping his 26th for six over long-off! Ashwin has done for Stokes 11 times in Tests, but it seems the batsman is keen to get his retaliation in first. No great signs of spin from the surface, with India's seamers both getting second spells this morning.

11.05am: Making a stand

After the early wobbles, England's fourth-wicket pair have managed to negotiate a period of safe passage. Siraj has arguably been India's best bowler this morning, despite Patel's continued success in his debut series, and he had Ben Stokes ruffled - to the point that Virat Kohli decided to join the conversation, too. The umpires also stepped in, but things seemed cordial enough. Stokes added a muscled pull to a couple of fours edged through the cordon off Siraj, and with Jonny Bairstow looking a lot more settled after his pair in the last Test, England will be hoping for a partnership from two of their most-experienced batsmen. For India, R Ashwin is lurking...

10.35am: Root rumbled by pace

First ball after drinks, and Mohammed Siraj celebrates his return to the side by pinning Joe Root plumb lbw! Perfect length straight up, jags back at a sedentary England captain to rap him on both pads in front of middle and off - and there's no review, Root knew he hadn't gone anywhere. No real demons in the pitch so far, but plenty in English heads, it seems.

10.15am: Zak attack falls flat

Two in two overs for Patel, as Zak Crawley's not-going-to-die-wondering approach fails to come off! Similar to Crawley's dismissal right at the very start of England's tour in Sri Lanka, when he hit Lasith Embuldeniya to mid-off; after stroking four down the ground a few balls earlier, this time he couldn't get to the pitch and spooned a simple catch to Siraj, who barely had to move. That means Crawley is closing in on a full house against left-arm spin, having fallen three times to Patel in this series, and four out of four to Embuldeniya in Galle.

10am: Axar on, Dom off

Spin into the mix for the sixth over, and quickly England have to get into Indiana Jones mode. Sure enough, it takes just two balls for Axar Patel to strike and take his Test match bowling average below nine... and again it's the tricksy non-turner that does the damage, as Dom Sibley plays forward looking for spin, but only succeeds in deflecting an inside edge on to his leg bail. Couldn't even say the ball before had spooked him by ragging big, as Sibley had smothered it - but I suppose the horse has already bolted when it comes to England's mentality against spin. Another false start from the openers, who have just one partnership above 17 from 11 innings this winter.

9.45am: Sighters

So, is it going to be bunsen burner, nice little earner for Virat Kohli and his side once again? You couldn't blame them for taking that route, given the way England's batting has crumbled since making 578 in the very first outing of the series - and all suggestions before the start here were that Motera would dust up nicely with a red ball, as it did for the pink (albeit that so many dismissals in the third Test came from non-turning deliveries). Anyway, for now it's a classical diet of new-ball seam, India starting off with Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj in harness; Ishant snaked one into Zak Crawley's front pad in the opening over, but DRS showed it to be going over the top. To whet the appetite for what's to come, I'll leave you with this little chat between Sanjay Manjrekar and Raunak Kapoor on the subject of turning pitches in India.

9.25am: WTC

The state of play: India need only to avoid defeat to secure their spot in the World Test Championship final. England, meanwhile, can only play the role of party poopers, but they'll have Australia - the team that would benefit from an India defeat - barracking for them. Beyond the added WTC context, England are aiming to become only the fourth team since 1984 to win two Tests in a series in India.

9.05am: England win toss and bat

G'day and welcome to our rolling report of the fourth Test. It's crunch time in the race for World Test Championship qualification, and the last stop on England's six-match subcontinental odyssey... and Joe Root has won his third toss of the series. What does that mean for the next five four few days? The tourists have made a couple of changes, altering the balance of their side by bringing in batsman Dan Lawrence and spinner Dom Bess, with seamers Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad dropping out. India, having already released Jasprit Bumrah, have included Mohammed Siraj in his place. Of course, were this a report from the red carpet at an awards show, everyone would be dying for a word with the pitch. "Do you listen to the critics? How are you holding together? Can you top last week's performance?" Not long now until we find out just how many booby traps have been installed for the second game in Ahmedabad.

Even as teams start to prepare for the tournament, the IPL has not yet announced the dates as well as the venue for the event. Concerned officials have pointed out that a final decision is set to be taken at an IPL Governing Council meeting, but no date for that has been fixed yet.

It is understood the meeting is likely to take place around the closing days of the fourth and final Test of the England series, which started in Ahmedabad on March 4. However, none of the BCCI's top brass as well as IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel have spoken out in public on details of the tournament

Although the IPL has chalked out a window for the tournament, the key hurdle for the BCCI has been finalising the venues. Having made up its mind to conduct the tournament in India after successfully organising domestic limited-overs tournaments as well as the ongoing England series, the BCCI had originally earmarked Mumbai along with Pune and Ahmedabad as the venues to conduct the 2021 edition.

However, the number of rising Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, where the state government has imposed fresh restrictions including no crowds, forced the IPL to mobilise an alternative plan. That involves conducting the tournament at multiple cities with Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad being put on the potential shortlist.

One reason behind the delay is that the IPL was waiting for the Election Commission of India to announce the poll dates of several states including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, and if it would clash with the tournament. While Tamil Nadu elections are scheduled for April 7, the polls would be conducted in multiple phases in West Bengal between late March and April 29 with results out on May 4.

ESPNcricinfo understands the IPL is thinking of conducting the matches in Kolkata, the home base of the Kolkata Knight Riders, after the election results.

The blame game has begun as PSL franchises and management begin to sift through the wreckage of a sixth season that was curtailed 14 games in, after a spate of Covid-19 cases among players and support staff. An investigation into what went wrong will take place, at an as-yet unspecified time in the future, and conducted independent of the PCB. And though Wasim Khan, the PCB's CEO, began a press conference by saying "this isn't about a blame game", the message by its end - when he spoke of "self-policing" and players needing "to take responsibility" - had shifted.

That shift is likely to have been prompted by the reaction of at least a couple of franchises; a Lahore Qalandars spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo there had been clear breaches of the bubble at the hotel, and that the hotel had staged weddings - away from the bubble but on the premises - over the course of the tournament.

"This isn't about a blame game, about who's to blame," Khan said. "This is a collective effort that we all had a responsibility to actually police and self-police that environment. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do it effectively enough. Hence we find ourselves in this situation today.

"We had a discussion this morning with the franchise owners and we came to the conclusion that it was best to postpone the event. We entered that meeting with the franchisees with one or two possible solutions, one in terms of looking to halt proceedings for five days until we were able to make sense of what was going on and see whether we could move forward. There was a strong consensus that it was untenable to continue based on the fact that it was outside of ours and others reasonable sort of areas because of what had taken place."

More to follow

Surrey have signed Kemar Roach, the West Indies fast bowler, for the first seven games of the County Championship season.

Roach will be the club's second overseas player for the early part of the season, alongside Hashim Amla, who initially joined Surrey on a Kolpak deal ahead of the 2020 season.

While Surrey already have several fast-bowling options on their books, they have opted to bring in Roach's experience following Morne Morkel's departure, and with Sam and Tom Curran due to miss the start of the Championship season to play in the IPL.

Roach will be returning to county cricket after a decade-long absence, following a brief spell at Worcestershire towards the end of the 2011 season.

He will fly to the UK after the completion of West Indies' second Test against Sri Lanka, and Surrey said in a press release that they expect him to be available for their season opener against Gloucestershire on April 8, "subject to any Covid restrictions and quarantine rules". He will return to the Caribbean after the fixture against Middlesex, which starts on May 20.

"I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Surrey for the early part of the summer," Roach said. "Two grounds I wanted to play at as a kid were the two Ovals: Kensington and The Oval, home of Surrey.

"When Alec Stewart showed an interest in me I had no hesitation in saying yes to him. The club has a strong squad with a nice balance of youth and experience. I would like to thank CWI for allowing me the opportunity to go back and play county cricket again after a number of years."

Stewart, Surrey's director of cricket, said: "I'm very pleased to have secured the services of Kemar for the first seven games of the upcoming season. He's a highly skilled bowler who we feel will suit the conditions of the early part of the English domestic season.

"He is vastly experienced at international and domestic level and bowled very well in last summer's Test series in England without amassing the wicket haul he really deserved."