Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant will remain out until after the All-Star break due to a left hamstring strain he suffered earlier this month, the team announced Friday.

After a follow-up MRI, the Nets determined Durant "will require an additional recovery period" that will keep him out through the All-Star break, which includes next month's All-Star Game in Atlanta.

"While we are confident that Durant will return at full strength, this extra recovery time will allow him to perform at the level at which he has been playing this season once he returns," the Nets said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Nets coach Steve Nash had said he expected Durant to come back before the All-Star break.

"We're just trying to monitor and be cautious," Nash said before the Nets beat the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. "We definitely have kind of slowed things down in that respect: not putting any pressure on him, not trying to rush him back in any capacity and just make sure that we give him the right amount of time to be more than healed, to be strong and conditioned to come back to the team."

The NBA announced later Friday that Indiana Pacers forward Domantas Sabonis replaced Durant on the All-Star roster, while Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum -- as the highest-ranking forward among East reserves -- will replace him in the starting lineup.

As of late Friday afternoon, there was still no official word from the NBA as to whether Durant would still serve as a captain alongside Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. This is the first time since the NBA changed formats from East vs. West to having two captains choose teams that one of them was unable to participate in the game.

Durant has missed nine of Brooklyn's past 10 games -- three because of the NBA's health and safety protocols, after being pulled midway through Brooklyn's loss to the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 5 due to contact tracing with someone who had a positive coronavirus test, and then the past six games after suffering a hamstring strain against the Golden State Warriors in a win on Feb. 13.

The Nets have won eight games in a row -- the longest current winning streak in the NBA -- and will face the Dallas Mavericks on ABC in Brooklyn on Saturday night.

After playing Dallas, the Nets have two more games before the break: in San Antonio against the Spurs on March 1, and in Houston against James Harden's old team, the Rockets, on March 3.

Durant, 32, is averaging 29 points, 5.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game this season.

In 2018, 50 students in New South Wales took it in turns to climb into a driving simulator.

All the while, computers assessed how their driving changed.

The results were clear. Those listening to music broke the speed limit more and for longer than those driving in silence.

On Saturday, when England pitch up at the Principality Stadium, the usual soundtrack of aggro and pyro will be muted.

There will be no bus-butting as they inch through crowded Cardiff streets. No Tom Jones sing-along as they warm up. No roar of expectation as the first kick sails up towards the rafters.

But if the 80 minutes that follows is different, the lack of a backing track may not be why.

Usually Wales v England is, to rework the French, hostility, physicality, intensity. Two juggernauts set on a collision course. A destruction derby of a Test match.

This year demands something a little smarter, a little stealthier.

"My concern is England throw the kitchen sink at Wales," said former England scrum-half Matt Dawson on BBC Radio 5 Live. "That they try to pummel Wales."

"Wales can then show a little bit of brain. Alun Wyn Jones and his senior players can slightly outfox England.

"England don't need to up their physicality, it's the top two inches."

Nowhere is the change of tack clearer than in midfield.

Last year in England's win at Twickenham, Manu Tuilagi, out at 13, carried the ball more than any other England back. In fact only one forward, Tom Curry, bettered his total.

Five years before it was the same stage, a similar story, if a different outcome. Jamie Roberts and Sam Burgess left craters around the gainline and England's World Cup hopes finished in tatters.

These two line-ups ask different questions.

In Owen Farrell and Henry Slade, England have a distribution network to rival Amazon. Whether spreading wide or kicking long they can deliver the ball to all areas of the pitch.

The punch and penetration others offer is lost in the post, however.

Wales have an intriguing combination.

Jonathan Davies, normally afforded time and space to coordinate defence and sniff out space at 13, is closer to the fray at inside centre.

Wing George North, winning his 100th Wales cap but making only his eighth start in midfield, is at outside centre.

Both, at their best, are sublime players. But the chemistry between them is uncertain, tested only once in a Autumn Nations Cup win over Italy.

There will be no falling back on well-oiled patterns. No autopilot option for a phase or two. In an area where Wales have previously been drilled as tight as a marching band, the two centres will have to riff off each other.

Given Tuilagi's injury run, England have had plenty of time to work out alternative attacking rhythms. And, most often, they have used boot rather than ball in hand.

It has been effective. England scored four of their six tries in a 44-8 win over France in 2019 after finding acres of backfield space. Accurate box kicks with a furious chase were key to their run to the Rugby World Cup final six months later.

On the opening day of this season's competition, however, Scotland and Stuart Hogg were ready and waiting. They covered the space, returned fire and won the day.

Rather than tried and tested, England's percentage game was tired and bested.

For this week, those tactics, if not torn up, have been tweaked.

Replacement scrum-half Dan Robson spoke on this week's Rugby Union Weekly of "putting the ball up on these young wingers and really going after them".

Coach Eddie Jones, meanwhile, publicly mulled over 20-year-old Louis Rees-Zammit's "deficiencies" and the inside line that Gloucester team-mate Jonny May could provide on the young star's game.

Mathew Tait, who walked into the Millennium Stadium in 2005 as a teenage wonderkid and was almost carried out of it by Gavin Henson, can attest to how this fixture can trash growing reputations.

But, with Liam Williams at full-back, Rees-Zammit has the ideal wingman for the incoming barrage.

Amid those skirmishes, some big answers may emerge.

England won two trophies in 2020, but without really convincing.

Wales have won two out of two matches in 2021, but by narrow margins and with superior numbers.

Both seem to be in search of an identity, even if they have not been short of results.

Nearing the halfway point of a World Cup cycle, and the back end of a pandemic, both Jones and Wales counterpart Wayne Pivac hope the masks come off soon.

That their sides' real self stands up and stands out amid the silence.

Former England wing Ugo Monye says Premiership Rugby "does not care enough" about racism in the sport.

But seven months on, Monye told BBC Sport he felt the Premiership's actions were "just lip service" and "nothing more than PR".

"If they cared, they would do something," he added.

A Premiership Rugby spokesperson said: "Premiership Rugby is committed to making English professional club rugby a more diverse, welcoming and inclusive environment for our staff, players and fans while also supporting societal change."

In September 2020, Sale wing Marland Yarde said he had been racially abused by a spectator during a Premiership game earlier in the season.

Monye said that, although Premiership Rugby had stressed the importance of improving diversity in the sport and making sure all players feel safe and protected, "no protocols have been established for racist incidents".

He continued: "Premiership Rugby's CEO Darren Childs said on TV back in August how important it was to improve representation in rugby.

"They promised they would put together a policy on racial abuse during games and circulate it to all Premiership teams, coaches and players.

"Marland Yarde got racially abused in a game at the end of February 2020. He did not know what to do about it.

"Since then, the only tangible thing Premiership Rugby have done is put together two pages. It could have been done in five minutes.

"It effectively says if you get racially abused, tell a match official about it.

"That document was sent to Marland Yarde - one player out of the entirety of the Premiership."

Premiership Rugby said players could "raise concerns" at their clubs, adding "many will have their own policy or processes in place".

"For a player, his or her team manager may be a good point of contact as they will regularly talk to them about a variety of issues," a Premiership Rugby spokesperson continued.

"But most importantly anybody in rugby can contact the Rugby Football Union to raise concerns and the RFU would always investigate."

'I would expect more to have happened'

Monye, who spent his club career at Harlequins, praised the work the RFU and Rugby Players' Association have done on diversity and inclusion as "magnificent".

In the Six Nations, all teams are observing a minute's silence before matches.

The 37-year-old expressed frustration over media coverage of players' decisions to take the knee or stand during the silence before games.

"I respect players that take the knee and those that don't," he explained.

"Seven months on from when rugby first put together an anti-racism campaign, I would expect more to have happened.

"Why should players put themselves out to be debated on social media when it has not really amounted to anything?

"The reason we wanted to acknowledge it was to start a debate that would lead to some action.

"Certain stakeholders in the game have decided not to do anything and I think that is because it does not matter enough to them."

Premiership Rugby said it had made five commitments when launching Rugby Against Racism in August.

These included:

Premiership Rugby said it was "delighted to see the continuation of Project Rugby", adding: "Work has been going on to deliver the other four commitments and we are looking forward to receiving input from Rugby Players' Association's new diversity and inclusion board on the next steps for each of them."

'Words are empty if nothing changes'

Monye said he was "tired" of talking about racism, adding: "I don't want to have another conversation about it unless it actually instigates meaningful change."

The former British and Irish Lion supports the minute's silence before international games but stressed that such shows of support must be followed up by actions.

"A minute's silence is one thing, it is a moment of reflection," he said. "If all we ever do is take a moment to reflect but not do anything, what is the point?

"I do not mind what mission statements are, I care about the actions they take to fulfil them. Words are empty if nothing comes off the back of it.

"I hope that it is not just fans taking a moment to reflect. I hope people in positions of power take a moment to reflect on whether they are doing enough.

"I hope the Premiership responds not just with words, but with action."

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Josh Williams will bring one of his longest-running sponsors back to the race track this weekend as the NASCAR Xfinity Series invades Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Williams will carry Star brite – a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based manufacturer of automotive, marine, and RV appearance and maintenance products – as well as Star Tron, their premier fuel treatment, aboard his No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet Camaro for Saturday’s Contender Boats 250 at the 1.5-mile paved oval.

Star Tron — Star brite’s enzyme fuel treatment — first came on board with Williams in the Xfinity Series as a co-primary sponsor at Daytona Int’l Speedway in 2017.

Since then, the company has featured schemes that include their RV product line, as well as performacide disinfectants.

Altogether, this marks the company’s fifth year supporting Williams in the Xfinity Series.

They were a major part of Williams’ 20-race Xfinity Series deal in 2018 and also served as the primary sponsor for what, at the time, was Williams’ career-best run of eighth at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April of 2019.

“We’re all excited to support Josh and DGM Racing once again in the Xfinity Series this year,” noted Gregor Dornau, EVP of Sales & Marketing for Star brite. “At Star brite, as manufacturers of products for almost everything outdoors, our motto is ‘Clean and Protect,’ and those standards remain important as the country continues to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been honored to be a part of Josh’s tenure in the Xfinity Series since the very beginning and are once again looking forward to seeing the Star brite and Star Tron theme on the No. 92 Chevrolet Camaro in our home market this weekend,” Dornau added.

Williams returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway hoping to build off of the lessons he learned during a pair of races last year, held during the early stages of NASCAR’s return to action following the sports shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, Williams’ most recent run at the South Florida facility marked his career-best Homestead performance, with a 12th-place finish and his first lap led at the track on June 14 in a 250-mile event.

“I feel like we made some strides last year and picked up a few things we can bring back there with us to Miami,” said Williams. “It’s a cool area that we only get to go to once a year, and it’s definitely important to all of us at DGM Racing because of Star brite being on the race car with us. They’ve been there with me since I started racing in NASCAR’s national series, so it’s always a big deal and we’re really glad to have them on board again at their home track.”

Williams sits 17th in Xfinity Series points through the first two races of the season. He enters Homestead after a 17th-place finish at the Daytona (Fla.) Road Course, his career-best finish on a road course.

The Contender Boats 250 takes the green flag at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

TULSA, Okla. – Starting Wednesday, March 3, tickets for the 2022 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire will go on sale.

As always, renewals and new orders will begin at the same time, with the deadline to submit an order set for Wednesday, May 12.

All ticket holders must renew. Deferment of a ticket-holder’s 2021 tickets was not an automatic renewal. If fans do not renew before the deadline, they will lose their seats.

The 36th edition of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire takes place Jan. 10-15, 2022. Reserved seats will continue to be sold in six, five, and four-day packages, with prices unchanged from the previous event.

Four-day tickets are $227, five-day tickets are $282, and tickets for the full event are $337, plus tax (8.517%) and shipping, which is $7 for orders up to 15 tickets and $10 from 16 ticket orders and up.

Domestic orders, not held at Will Call, will be sent via USPS Certified Mail to ensure each order sent will require a signature. All international orders will be kept at Will Call.

Chili Bowl offices are open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT.

Current ticket holders will be sent a renewal form. If ordering with the renewal form, those can be returned to 1140 S. 83rd East Ave. Tulsa, OK 74112 or by fax to (918) 836-5517.

Tickets can be purchased with Visa, MasterCard, cash, check, or money order. Orders will not be taken via email or social media.

All orders are processed by hand. All renewals are processed first, then changes to those accounts, then new orders will be done in the order they were received until all tickets are sold. If a reserved seat ticket cannot be acquired, pit passes will be on sale at the event and never sell out.

The pit pass doubles as a general admission pass and allows fans access to the back straightaway on a first-come, first-served basis. Pit passes are not sold in advance.

Times and other event information will be published as the event draws closer.

YUCAIPA, Calif. – G&G Racing and Cory Texter will team up for the third consecutive season in Progressive American Flat Track and will contend the AFT Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines title.

Texter will be riding his Yamaha MT-07 with added support from Mission Foods and Roof Systems of Dallas, Texas.

After winning the inaugural AFT Production Twins championship with G&G Racing in 2019, Texter finished runner-up last year with four wins and 11 total podium finishes.

“Last year was a success in my opinion,” said Texter. “We came a little bit short of defending our championship, but I learned so much about the motorcycle and myself as a rider that will help me this season. It’s really cool to see a lot of diversity in the schedule and with my experience, I really think that will play into my favor.”

Texter will once again ride for John and L.J. Gronek out of the G&G Racing stable on the same Yamaha MT-07 race bikes that have brought him success the last two seasons.

“We are excited to bring Cory back for another season,” said L.J. Gronek. “He has a great comfort level with the motorcycles and his work ethics are second to none. We are eager to get started and have some fun.”

The team looks forward to the extra support with the addition of Mission Foods and Jerry Stinchfield of Roof Systems as sponsors.

“I am ecstatic to partner again with Cory and the G&G team,” said Stinchfield. “They have proven they have what it takes to be successful and along with Mission Foods, we are looking for big things from CTex this season.”

GLENDORA, Calif. – Tickets are now on sale for the 34th annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil, scheduled for May 21-23 in the Houston suburb of Baytown.

The largest annual sporting event in Southeast Texas will feature professional drag racing in three categories of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series: Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock, as well as a variety of classes in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.

“As host of this event for more than three decades, we are thrilled to welcome back our loyal fans to one of the quickest and fastest racetracks in the country,” said track operator Seth Angel. “And we’re super happy to return to our traditional spring date on the NHRA schedule.

“Houston Raceway Park Powered By Pennzoil has long enjoyed a reputation as a place where, when the weather conditions are just right, world records can be set. We’ve always worked diligently to make sure our guests have a memorable time whenever they come to visit and we’re certain this 34th running of the race will be nothing short of amazing.”

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car) and Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) are reigning winners of the SpringNationals.

In 2020, the SpringNationals was moved to the fall amid concerns surrounding the COVID pandemic. That race was held under strict health guidelines in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the limited crowd allowed through the gates.

Now, as the pandemic lessens, officials are able to allow more fans through the gates in May. Angel reports safety protocols will remain in effect for those wishing to wash their hands more frequently and avoid direct contact with others whenever possible but says the overall feel of the event will be much less restrictive.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- - Buffalo Sabres captain Jack Eichel is considered day-to-day, and starting goalie Linus Ullmark will miss at least the team's two-game weekend series against the Philadelphia Flyers.

In the meantime, coach Ralph Krueger still wasn't ready Friday to say whether high-priced forward Jeff Skinner will resume playing after a three-game benching.

Krueger listed Eichel as questionable to play against the Flyers on Saturday. He was a last-minute scratch after experiencing a lower-body injury during the pregame warm-ups before Buffalo's 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Krueger said Ullmark is still being evaluated to determine the severity of a lower-body injury he suffered in the first period against the Devils. Ullmark appeared to be hurt six minutes in but continued playing in stopping all 15 shots he faced before not returning for the start of the second period.

Skinner skated on the Sabres' fourth line in practice Friday, which was a promotion after he worked out with the team's taxi squad members a day earlier. Krueger declined to reveal whether Skinner would return, only saying only that he would be available to play on Saturday.

Except to say that it's not a disciplinary issue, Krueger has declined to detail the reasons behind his decision regarding Skinner. The 11th-year player and seven-time 20-goal scorer hasn't scored in 18 consecutive games dating to last season and is in the second year of an eight-year, $72 million contract.

England are considering making a formal complaint to the ICC following their two-day defeat in this week's third Test in Ahmedabad - an experience that Chris Silverwood, England's head coach, says he hopes will galvanise his young batsmen to fully cash in when the going is good in the future.

England were routed by ten wickets in the day-night Test at the newly opened Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, after collapsing to scores of 112 and 81 in their two innings - making for an aggregate of 193 that is their lowest in India, and their second-lowest anywhere in the world since 1904.

India's own batting scarcely fared any better in their first innings, as Joe Root returned the extraordinary figures of 5 for 8 with his part-time offbreaks. And while the skiddiness of the pink ball was cited as one factor, with 20 of the 30 wickets falling either lbw or bowled in the course of the contest, the lavish turn that all the spinners extracted in between whiles made survival extremely tricky for even the best on show.

"We will be talking about certain things behind the scenes," Silverwood said. "At the same time, we are disappointed that we are sat here when there should be three days of cricket left. I am sure a few spectators are as well. We've spoken to [match referee] Javagal Srinath but not about the pitch. Joe and I have to have a sit-down, have a conversation and see where we go with it."

Opinion has been sharply divided about the merits of the Motera pitch. Virat Kohli, India's captain, blamed "below-par batting on both sides", while his counterpart Root said the stadium's 40,000 fans had been "robbed" of the chance to witness a proper battle between bat and ball. "People had to watch me get wickets on there which shouldn't be the case," he said.

However, Silverwood also acknowledged that England had been complicit in their downfall, particularly after winning an important toss and reaching 74 for 2 in their first innings. Had they gone on to post even a score of 200, they might have been in a position to control the contest. Instead they lost their last eight wickets for 38, and allowed India to reach 99 for 3 by stumps on the first day.

"We do have to get better on these pitches and we do have to accept there's places where we could have improved," Silverwood said. "Look at the first innings. We had an opportunity there to score more runs and next time we'll pounce on that. And whatever the pitch did or didn't do, India ultimately played better than us on that surface. But it probably pushed us to the extremes of what most of our players, if any, have experienced."

With that in mind, Silverwood is adamant that his team will be stronger for the experience - particularly the contingent of young batsmen in England's ranks, many of whom have been experiencing Test cricket in spinning conditions for the first time.

It hasn't been a tour of unmitigated failure for England's rookies. Dom Sibley made back-to-back fifties in England's victories in Galle and Chennai; Zak Crawley's first-innings 53 was one of only two scores above 27 for either team in Ahmedabad, while Dan Lawrence, who did not feature in the third Test, showed his potential with a hard-fought 73 in his maiden Test innings against Sri Lanka.

However, England have not passed 178 in five attempts since posting 578 in their maiden innings of the series, and all the players' techniques have all been exposed in the prevailing conditions - not least that of Ollie Pope, who was beaten in flight rather than off the pitch by R Ashwin, and bowled in both innings in Ahmedabad.

Pope at least fared better than Jonny Bairstow, who bagged a pair from No.3 on his return to the team following his mid-tour break, and it is a telling statistic of the winter so far that, while Root has made scores of 228, 186 and 218 in three individual innings, Sibley's tally of 191 in five Tests is the next best return by any batsman.

And yet, having been credited with reappraising England's approach to Test-match batting since his appointment as head coach in 2019, Silverwood is sure that the struggles of recent weeks will harden his team's resolve to make their starts count - not just in India, but on into next winter's Ashes tour too.

"You look at the guys we've got in there, your Popes, Crawleys, Sibleys, all these guys coming through this experience," Silverwood said. "As tough as it is at the moment, it will hopefully galvanise them. When they do get in on flat surfaces, better surfaces, it will make them even more hungry and desperate to make sure they get the runs on those surfaces.

"When we travel to other countries such as Australia, hopefully if they'll get themselves in, they'll get greedy and go big. And that's where it comes back into our gameplan of making big individual scores, big first-innings scores, which until recently we've been very good at, and creating big partnerships.

"Hopefully this experience will just harden them towards that and make them potentially just appreciate the flatter wickets a little bit more, and make them more greedy for it.

"But equally, hopefully they do take a lot from it, and next time they come onto a surface or experience a situation like this, it won't be as much of a shock to them and hopefully they will have had a think about how they use their skills to combat what's in front of them.

"As tough as it is and as painful as it is at this moment, hopefully we can take some good lessons."

Nine days out from the start of India Women's first assignment in a year, against South Africa at home, the squads for the five-match ODI series or the three T20Is, the venue or the tour itinerary itself, have not been publicly announced yet by the BCCI, the hosts. CSA, too, has not announced the South African squads yet. The only official statement so far confirming the scheduling of the series has come from the host state body, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA), which said in a recent release that all eight matches will be held at the Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow, starting March 7.

While official word from the Indian board remains elusive, the Indian contingent assembled in Lucknow on Thursday. ESPNcricinfo understands that they are currently serving a five-day quarantine and all members of the Indian touring party will have to clear two Covid-19 tests during this period before they can begin training. South Africa, meanwhile, who are due to enter India via Mumbai late Friday evening, will undergo a six-day quarantine upon arrival in Lucknow in the early hours of Saturday. South Africa will take part in their first training session on March 5, two days before the ODI series gets underway.

ESPNcricinfo has also learnt that the UPCA is in talks with the BCCI to explore the possibility of allowing crowds up to 40-50% capacity for the best part of India's eight-match assignment. A final decision is likely to be arrived at during the weekend. This is the first time a women's international fixture will be played at the Ekana International Stadium, which has a capacity of 50,000. The stadium, built in 2017, hosted its first international match in 2018, when India took on West Indies in a T20I. The Afghanistan men's team used it as their third home ground in India, after Dehradun and Greater Noida, playing a series apiece across formats against West Indies in 2019.

In another development ESPNcricinfo is privy to, it is understood that India head coach WV Raman's contract, the two-year term of which ended in December last year, has been extended. Long-time team manager Trupti Bhattacharya and physio Tracy Fernandes, whose contracts had expired at the end of the T20 World Cup and not been renewed during the one-year hiatus, are also back in the fold.

As for the make-up of the Indian squads for both the ODIs and T20Is, it is learnt that are a number of experienced regulars do not feature in them. Several new faces, some of whom had travelled to the UAE in November last year for the three-team Women's T20 Challenge, have received maiden national call-ups.

The ODI series opener against South Africa will mark India's return to action after a year. They last played international cricket on March 8, 2020, going down to Australia in the T20 World Cup final at the MCG. The only competitive cricket that the Indian players took part in during this period was the Women's T20 Challenge held in the final week of IPL 2020, in Sharjah in November 2020. In the past year, a tour of England scheduled in July 2020 was cancelled, while a tour of Australia scheduled for January 2021 was deferred.

Both South Africa and India have earned direct qualification for the rescheduled 2022 Women's ODI World Cup in New Zealand, and will look to use the bilateral series to kick-start their preparations for a busy next year, which will also see women's cricket return to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, in the shortest format, in July. In 2023, South Africa will host the T20 World Cup, which was deferred by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The India vs South Africa series were originally supposed to be held in Thiruvananthapuram, but the Kerala Cricket Association informed the BCCI about its inability to host the games as the ground has been "made available to the Indian military for a recruitment drive, without the KCA's prior knowledge", and it doesn't have a venue with "appropriate broadcast facilities".

International cricket in India resumed on February 5, with the Test series against England, of which the first two Tests were in Chennai. Crowds up to 50% capacity of the MA Chidambaram Stadium were allowed for the second Test last week. Up to 55,000 spectators could attend the third Test at the newly renovated Sardar Patel International Stadium (renamed Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday) in Ahmedabad.

The Indian government last month revised its guidelines pertaining to spectators at outdoor sports in the country. "For outdoor sports events spectators will be allowed to full seating capacity," the Indian ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said in a circular updated on January 29. The circular, titled 'Standard Operating Procedures for opening up of Stadia for sports events', revised the ministry's previous guidelines issued on December 26, which had stated spectators can be allowed at 50% capacity for outdoor sports.