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Defending champion Novak Djokovic admitted his Australian Open might be over after an injury-hit win on Friday as fans were kicked out ahead of a state-wide coronavirus lockdown.

In extraordinary scenes, the eight-time winner's night match against Taylor Fritz was suspended at 11:30 pm (1230 GMT) to clear Rod Laver Arena before Victoria state's six million residents were locked down at midnight.

The five-day lockdown, during which fans are barred and players go into a bio-secure "bubble", follows an outbreak of the highly contagious UK coronavirus strain stemming from an airport hotel.

In the now-empty stadium, a grimacing Djokovic, who needed repeated treatment on an abdominal injury, recovered from losing the third and fourth sets to beat Fritz 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2.

Former India captain Anil Kumble has led the support from the Indian players' fraternity to former teammate Wasim Jaffer after senior officials at Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) reportedly alleged Jaffer was creating a religious and communal divide in the dressing room. Along with Kumble, others who backed Jaffer included former Indian and Baroda allrounder Irfan Pathan, India and Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary and former India and Karnataka fast bowler Dodda Ganesh.

"With you Wasim," Kumble said in a tweet posted on Thursday. "Did the right thing. Unfortunately, it's the players who'll miss your mentorship." Incidentally, both Kumble and Jaffer are part of the Kings XI Punjab coaching staff; the former is the director of cricket operations and the latter is the batting coach.

The allegations, which were published by a Hindi daily on Wednesday, quoted CAU secretary Mahim Verma stating that Jaffer was trying to "break the team through religious activities". Navneet Mishra, the Uttarakhand team manager, also alleged that Jaffer had also changed the team slogan from 'Jai Hanuman' to 'Go Uttarakhand'.

The SG ball, which has been put under scrutiny following India's defeat to England in the 1st Test this week, is not one of the factors the Indian players should look at, said former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi.

He tweeted: "I missed out on Indn debacle yesterday..which was always on cards..but to ‘blame’ the SG ball or the wicket or the toss would be barking up the wrong tree-regrouping is as much the need as appreciating English determination to grind & win-also never underestimate any opposition!"

The stitched-by-hand Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) ball, used for Test matches in India, is under scrutiny after the first Test as players have complained about the stitches on the seam coming off.

Like many plaudits, former India cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar reckoned India could make one change for the second Test against England after the humiliating 227-run loss. The former opener feels Kuldeep Yadav would be included in the side as he would add variety in the side where there are two off-spinners already.

"Maybe in the hindsight, they could have included Kuldeep Yadav a bit of variety. Because you have two off-spinners Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin," he said on Star Sports.

Gavaskar reckoned Kuldeep would come in place of Shahbaz Nadeem or Washington Sundar. He also felt that an anxious Nadeem got a little nervous and hence bowled unnecessary no-balls.

England need to take nine wickets in 90 overs on the final day of the first Test in Chennai, after declining to enforce the follow-on and setting India 420 to win.

After wrapping things up on the fourth morning, with Jack Leach and James Anderson taking two wickets apiece to leave Washington Sundar unbeaten on 85, England opted to bat again. R Ashwin took six wickets as they made 178 all out in a spasmodic innings, which saw occasional bursts of attacking intent interspersed with defensive lulls as they looked to minimise the chance of India repeating their recent performance at the Gabba by chasing down an improbable fourth-innings target.

Leach struck the first blow for England in the final session, bowling Rohit Sharma with a perfect left-arm spinner's dismissal which gripped and turned past the outside edge to kiss the off stump, leaving India needing 381 to win on the final day.