Jasprit Bumrah's injured back might not require surgery "as of now", according to India bowling coach Bharat Arun. India's fast bowling spearhead is, however, unlikely to play a part in the remainder of India's home season, which features limited-overs series against Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka over the next three months.

Earlier in October, Bumrah visited the UK with the National Cricket Academy's chief physiotherapist Ashish Kaushik, and consulted specialists to treat the back problem. The BCCI hasn't made public the nature of Bumrah's problem, except saying in a press release that the injury was "minor".

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"Fast bowling is an unnatural activity. Despite our best efforts there can be no guarantees. We expect Bumrah to be back sooner than later, hopefully in time for the New Zealand Test series that is our next big challenge," Arun told the Hindu. "As of now, he doesn't need surgery."

Bumrah's absence hasn't affected the performance of India's fast bowling group, though, with Umesh Yadav stepping up to join Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma to form a solid combine against South Africa in the recent Test series.

Arun, who has been working with the bowlers since 2015, was particularly impressed with Umesh's comeback - he picked up 11 wickets in two Tests, a majority of those a reward for attacking the stumps.

"He's strong and quick and now he is bowling in better channels, making the batsman play around the off stump," Arun said. "He's got reverse swing, has a nasty short ball. He and Shami, who is fast, accurate and dangerous, are a potent combination."

Arun also conceded that there might be no immediate end in sight to the battle between R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to be the No. 1 Test spinner. Chances are the team management will go in for a "horses for courses" approach should they have to pick just one of the two.

While their performances have been neck-and-neck with the ball, the team management has in the past considered Jadeja's batting and fielding contributions as a valuable add-on, especially overseas.

"He's among the best spinners in the world, top class, and is approaching 400 Test wickets," Arun said of Ashwin. "In fact, Ashwin went to England and Australia as our No. 1 spinner and then ran into fitness issues. Ravindra Jadeja grabbed his chance, giving us control with the ball, solidity with the bat and fielding brilliantly.

"Away from home, if we have to pick one of the two in the eleven, it will be horses for courses looking at the conditions and the opposition. Then we have Kuldeep Yadav who picked five with his wrist spin in his last Test, in Sydney. We have an embarrassment of riches."

Papua New Guinea 180 for 4 (Doriga 43*, Amini 41*, Ura 30, Param 2-24) beat Singapore 137 for 9 (David 44, Ravu 4-18) by 43 runs

Tony Ura and Assad Vala started the good work with the bat, Charles Amini and Kiplin Doriga built on it, and then the bowlers, led by Damien Ravu, put the seal on a strong Papua New Guinea performance as they beat Singapore by 43 runs in Dubai. The result helped PNG get to eight points from five games, placing them top of the Group A table for the moment, while Singapore, after starting their campaign with a win over Scotland, have just four points from five games.

Singapore captain Amjad Mahboob asked PNG to bat upon winning the toss, and the experienced PNG opening duo of Ura and captain Vala proceeded to add 61 runs in quick time before Vala was dismissed off the last ball of the Powerplay for an 18-ball 24. Ura fell 20 runs later for a 21-ball 30 in the ninth over, and when Lega Siaka was dismissed next ball for 13, PNG did look a bit shaky at 81 for 3, which appeared worse when Sese Bau fell for 11 to leave the scoreboard reading 101 for 4.

But that brought Amini and Doriga together, and they both hit unbeaten 40s as Singapore, who had lost the services of offspinner Selladore Vijayakumar before the game after he was suspended for a suspect bowling action, wilted.

Amini ended on 41 not out off 28 balls, with two fours and a six, while Doriga's 43 not out came off 27 balls, with two fours and two sixes. The two added an unbroken 79 runs for the fifth wicket.

Singapore's reply started on a poor note as Surendran Chandramohan was dismissed for a diamond duck, run out without facing a ball. If that was bad, it got worse when Ravu sent back Rohan Rangarajan and Rezza Gaznavi off consecutive balls in the sixth over to leave Singapore on 37 for 3.

There was a bit of a fightback, led by Tim David, who hit a 26-ball 44, but though four others - Aritra Dutta, Navin Param, Vinoth Baskaran and Avi Dixit - got into double figures, there wasn't the one other big knock that could have helped David pull off an unlikely win, Ravu's 4 for 18 making it simpler for PNG.

Singapore's last group-stage match will be against Namibia tomorrow, while PNG's final fixture is against Kenya the day after.

LA Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic said that he has not decided on his future following his team's 5-3 loss to LAFC in the MLS Western Conference semifinals on Thursday.

Ibrahimovic had a goal and an assist in the game, but it wasn't enough as LAFC advanced to the conference finals after winning the first postseason edition of the city rivalry.

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When asked where he'll be playing, Ibrahimovic said it's "too early to speak" on whether he'll return for another season with the Galaxy.

"I have another two months [on my contract]," Ibrahimovic said after the match. "We'll see what happens. ... [If I stay], then MLS is good, because the whole world will watch it. If I don't stay, nobody will remember what MLS is."

Since arriving to the Galaxy in 2018, Ibrahimovic has taken the league by storm with his scoring prowess, with 53 goals in 58 matches. Before arriving to MLS, he had an illustrious career in Europe with stints at Ajax, Inter, Barcelona, Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

It was the Galaxy's first loss in the six editions of the El Tráfico rivalry. After Carlos Vela staked LAFC to an early lead with a dominant performance, Adama Diomande scored twice as a second-half substitute.

Ibrahimovic set up Cristian Pavon's goal and then drilled home a tying goal early in the second half. Romain Alessandrini set up a header to trim LAFC's lead to 4-3, but Diomande then chipped in the clinching goal in the 80th minute.

"There was a lot of goals," Zlatan said. "That's always exciting and fun, but no one wants to lose. The whole season has been, we score a couple of goals and we concede much more than we score. We should be sad and disappointed. We made mistakes and they punished us."

Ibrahimovic aimed an indecent gesture at an LAFC fan. As Ibrahimovic left the pitch he seemed to take exception to the fan's boasting, staring the supporter down while grabbing his own crotch.

When asked about the gesture, Ibrahimovic said: "How many fans came? 30,000? They said something."

ESPN's Jeff Carlisle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES -- It wasn't until three minutes remained in LAFC's 5-3 win over the LA Galaxy that the home fans in Banc of California Stadium indulged themselves by yelling "Ole!" with every completed pass. One couldn't blame them for waiting to the very end.

In the brief history of this rivalry, LAFC has blown leads in all manner of ways. There have been moments of individual brilliance from Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic and backbreaking defensive breakdowns that had to be seen to be believed. LAFC's fans had been conditioned to expect the worst. Thursday's victory in the Western Conference semifinals was the payoff, with LAFC winning for the first time in six encounters. But even as the result was different, there were similarities too, some of the haunting variety.

The Black and Gold surged in front thanks to two Carlos Vela goals, but by the 51st minute the Galaxy was back even, with nemesis Ibrahimovic netting the equalizer through goalkeeper Tyler Miller's legs. Goals two minutes apart from Diego Rossi and Adama Diomande saw the home side surge back in front, only for the Galaxy to grab one back through Rolf Feltscher. With nerves jangling, Diomande finally made the game safe in the 80th minute, and when the final whistle blew, the home fans roared.

LAFC finally slew its dragon.

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"When you've had games that get away from you, there's got to be some lessons along the way," said LAFC manager Bob Bradley. "At some moment, against your biggest rival, when obviously everything is at stake, to see those guys respond at 2-2, man that was awesome. That's such a step for this group."

Those lessons were reflected in Bradley's tactical approach to start the game. In previous matches, the Galaxy had ridden the jolts of adrenalin provided by Ibrahimovic's individual brilliance. And in many cases, LAFC's desire to carry the game was used against it to make the game more wide open than it needed to be.

This time around, the home side was content to sit back and absorb some pressure rather than insist on carrying the game to the Galaxy. Not only did that prevent the visitors from creating transition opportunities, but it took away space underneath and prevented Ibrahimovic or Cristian Pavon from latching onto loose balls and then playmaking in central areas.

And when the opportunity was there for LAFC to counter, it did so in ruthless fashion with the attacking trident of Vela, Rossi and Brian Rodriguez -- aided by the ball-winning of Latif Blessing -- turning the Galaxy's backline into knots. Vela in particular dazzled with his ability in transition.

But that only took the Black and Gold so far. For LAFC, composure is a trait that has often evaporated against its crosstown rival. So it was left to the team's collective head to see it through and it showed in the team's will to finish plays in attack and it did just enough defensively to see the result out. Diomande, recently returned from a stint in the league's Substance and Behavioral Health program, provided a huge boost.

The question now is: does LAFC have anything left? There are two more dragons left to slay in order to achieve its Supporters Shield/MLS Cup double. Up next is a tricky encounter against the Seattle Sounders on Tuesday, a side that has the benefit of an extra day's rest. Bradley noted his team's defensive frailties on the evening, even if they were somewhat overshadowed by the magnitude of the victory.

"There's a proud feeling of how we keep moving ourselves along, and yet when you talk to everybody inside, they're all focused already on the next game," said Bradley. "You can tell that this was just an important win. But we've got to move on...These playoffs games and this format, man, they're crazy. So we have to rebound quickly."

That is easy to say, yet harder to execute. But at least LAFC is moving on, which is something that the Galaxy can only look at with envy. The Galaxy can't feel cheated either, though there will remain some clamoring that Rodriguez was offside in the buildup to Vela's second goal. On this night, a Galaxy defense that had been sieve-like all season reverted to type following its first-round win against Minnesota United. The decision of Galaxy manager Guillermo Barros Schelotto to deploy four center-backs in his backline smacked of desperation, and on this night, there was simply no dealing with the dynamic movement of LAFC's front three.

"The whole season has been, we score a couple of goals and we concede much more than we score," said Ibrahimovic. "We should be sad and disappointed. We made mistakes and they punished us."

Ibrahimovic did have a goal and an assist on the night, yet his contribution was more of a spark rather than the raging inferno of previous encounters with LAFC. At the final whistle, he didn't shake any hands, opting to go straight to the locker room. Afterward he complained he had difficulty breathing due to a sore throat, and that he didn't know if it was due to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

Inevitably, questions turned to whether the Swede has played his last game in MLS. He has certainly lifted the league up and provided a priceless amount of attention. He responded with a series of maybes, adding it was "too early to speak" before ending with a typical Zlatan response.

"[If I stay], then MLS is good, because the whole world will watch it," he said. "If I don't stay, nobody will remember what MLS is."

The truth is that LAFC's attack, and Vela in particular, are delivering plenty of memories. The challenge to be remembered as champions goes on.

Steven Smith shapes to slog sweep an Adelaide net bowler, down on one knee and eyeing off the imagined midwicket boundary. Despite swinging hard, he isn't close to getting all of it, letting out a frustrated cry as the ball skews up off the top edge and rebounds from the inside of the net.

Sunday's first T20I against Sri Lanka will be another first for Smith on his road back from 12 months out of the game. Not only will this be Smith's first T20I in more than three years, it will be his and David Warner's first international match at home since the expiry of their Newlands bans. In both senses, Smith is finding his way, although on the strength of his first net session at Adelaide Oval, the public adulation may return a little more easily than the T20 batting rhythm.

"It has been a while [since the last T20I]. My last game was the World Cup in 2016 against India, where Virat [Kohli] took the game away from us," Smith said. "It's going to be nice to walk out on Adelaide Oval on Sunday and play a T20 for Australia. They love it down here, you only have to look at the Big Bash crowds that the Strikers get, they come out in numbers, and hopefully it's no different this Sunday.

"It's a game where you have to be ahead of the game and think on your feet. I usually do that reasonably well, so hopefully I can do that for this team" Steven Smith

"I'm pretty relaxed, I've been hitting lots of balls and feel really good, so just excited to get started and look forward to hopefully a successful summer."

The perception of Smith's relative lack of success as a T20I batsman has been driven partly by the greater achievements of others but primarily by absence: both of Smith from the Australian T20I team entirely in recent years, but also the lack of a chance to build some method and thinking through continual match play.

Smith is reckoned by the likes of Justin Langer and Tim Paine to be arguably the game's greatest batting problem solver. He has not had nearly enough recent T20I assignments to test himself.

"With the World Cup in about a year's time there's an opportunity to have that continuity and I think we've seen over the years that the T20 format's the one where guys have rested a lot and that'll probably change leading into a World Cup, I dare say," Smith said. "I think it's a great opportunity for the 14 guys that have been picked here to have that continuity and try to form a bond together and work towards hopefully all being part of a World Cup.

"It starts here this summer, we've got six games straight, which I think is really good, and 20-odd games before the World Cup, so an opportunity for guys to work together and gel as one. I haven't played a T20I for a while, but I've still played a lot of T20 cricket and playing in the IPL and things like that. I may not be as strong as some of the other guys. or can hit the ball as far, but I back myself in working the gaps, hitting boundaries and things like that.

"It's a game where you have to be ahead of the game and think on your feet. I usually do that reasonably well, so hopefully I can do that for this team."

As for future captaincy prospects, the question is not allowed to linger too long in the air before Smith swats it away, rather more definitively than his attempted slog sweep a few hours later: "Not on my radar at all. I'm pretty chilled, [Aaron] Finchy and Painey are both doing terrific jobs, so I'm enjoying playing and pretty chilled."

***

Warner advances down the wicket to Adam Zampa, keeps his head over the ball, and launches it clean and straight, bellowing "yes" as he runs with the shot, and signalling six with both arms raised as he reaches the other end.

Given some of his batting travails over the past three months, the sound of a solid connection was more than welcome to Warner, in environs where he has for long felt at home. Adelaide Oval was the ground where he made his very first T20 half-century for New South Wales against South Australia in January 2009, and at which he has subsequently carved out five further centuries while averaging comfortably better than 50 across the three forms of the game combined.

"I think that's one thing that we sort of forget about, what you have done and what you can do and what you're capable of doing," Warner said. "You get caught up in everyone saying you're out of form or you're not doing as well away from home and whatnot. You've just got to try and... that external noises, just don't let it get into your head. Negative thoughts are a very, very bad driver in anyone's mind, so you've got to keep being positive and don't buy into that."

Warner's words were the fruit of time out following a grim Ashes tour, the low point of a winter that had also featured strong performances in the IPL and then at the ODI World Cup. There was a sense that, for all his smiling visage, the constant baiting of English crowds, added to some outstanding bowling from Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer, had taken their toll.

"You're only going to mentally cook yourself by going back into the nets if you're trying to refresh. For me it's about putting down the tools and focusing on other things" David Warner

"We knew what we were going to tackle over there and what we were going to face, it was about keeping a smile on your face and not letting anyone rattle you," Warner said. "Go back six or seven years and it probably would have rattled me, but this time you know what you're going to expect when you go there, the English team say the same thing when they come to Australia. So for us it's about focusing on the task ahead, playing good cricket and scoring runs."

Asked whether he had been afforded enough time to recover between a late English summer Ashes and an Australian international season beginning as early as October, Warner referred to the extended break enforced in the wake of Cape Town. "I had a long time off in the past year, which was great mentally," he said, "and then coming back into it you forget how busy you actually are. But that's all about trying to stay as fresh as you can mentally.

"Take your mind away from the game when you're not playing, and try to find gaps in your schedule to actually get away from the game a little bit. For me it's family, that's one thing I really, really love. You go away from work, you put your tools down, and you just chill out, be quiet. For me it's about spending time with my family, doing the normal father things that you do and be a husband. That's what I do and for us you don't pick up a bat.

"You're only going to mentally cook yourself by going back into the nets if you're trying to refresh. For me it's about putting down the tools and focusing on other things."

Picking the tools back up in the T20Is will also allow Warner to think about something other than how to cover his off stump against Broad, and after the year he's had, a few switch-hits might be just the thing he needs. "It wouldn't be my game plan if I wasn't playing those shots," he said. "I won't be reverse-sweeping the fast bowlers, but I'll be going out there and doing what I do best and that's try to put on a good start for the team and obviously put on a good show for the spectators."

Spectators who, on Sunday, will see Smith and Warner in Australian colours for the first time in more than 18 months.

Afghanistan have announced a raft of changes to both their ODI side, which flattered to deceive at the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales, and the T20I team, which shared the honours after a washed-out tri-series final in Bangladesh in September.

For the upcoming matches against West Indies in Lucknow (a city in Northern India), top-order batsman Ibrahim Zadran and fast bowler Yamin Ahmadzai, among others, were brought in, even as veteran paceman Dawlat Zadran was left out.

Afghanistan lost all their nine matches at the World Cup under Gulbadin Naib, who was subsequently replaced by Rashid Khan for all three formats.

The trip to Bangladesh was a successful one for Rashid, and the team, as they beat Bangladesh in the one-off Test and then beat the home side and Zimbabwe once apiece - and lost once to each side too - on their way to the final, where rain forced an abandonment without a ball bowled.

Most of the players from that trip retained their spots in the T20I squad - trimmed from 17 to 16. However, Dawlat, who was expensive in his only outing, batsmen Fazal Niazai, Najeeb Tarakai and Shafiqullah, who also failed to impress in the limited chances they got, and uncapped 20-year-old left-arm-spinning allrounder Shahidullah were left out.

In their place were Ibrahim and Ahmadzai, as well as senior batsman Javed Ahmadi and left-arm medium pacer Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, who in July was called in to their World Cup squad as late replacement following disciplinary action against Aftab Alam.

In the ODIs, which will precede the T20Is, there was no place for Dawlat or his fast-bowling partner Hamid Hassan, and familiar faces like Hashmatullah Shahidi, Noor Ali Zadran and Samiullah Shinwari, who also missed out from the party that did duty at the World Cup.

Filling those gaps, as well as the ones following suspensions to Mohammad Shahzad and Aftab , were Ahmadi, Afsar Zazai, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Ibrahim, Ahmadzai and Naveen-ul-Haq.

The series against West Indies will start with three ODIs (November 6, 9 and 11), followed by three T20Is (November 14, 16 and 17), and a one-off Test, beginning November 27.

ODI squad: Rashid Khan (c), Asghar Afghan, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Javed Ahmadi, Afsar Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Ibrahim Zadran, Yamin Ahmadzai, Naveen-ul-Haq, Ikram Alikhil, Mujeeb ur Rahman.

T20I squad: Rashid Khan (c), Asghar Afghan, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Javed Ahmadi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Yamin Ahmadzai, Naveen-ul-Haq, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Mujeeb ur Rahman

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden State Warriors officially moved into their dream home Thursday night and then proceeded to live out a nightmare in an embarrassing 141-122 loss to the LA Clippers in the first regular-season game at Chase Center.

After watching his team get run up and down the floor all night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr didn't mince words about where his young group stood as the new season began.

"This is not a one-off, this is the reality," Kerr said. "There's going to be nights like this this year. You've got to play through it, you've got to keep fighting and keep getting better. That's the plan."

The Warriors came into the season with nine players 23 years old or younger on their roster. They knew there were going to be bad nights, and they knew there were going to be teaching moments throughout another 82-game campaign.

But reality hit fast Thursday night as the Clippers raced around against a Warriors organization that has been to five consecutive NBA Finals.

"It doesn't feel very good," Kerr said. "Losing stinks. It's no fun. This is more the reality of the NBA. ... The last five years we've been living in a world that isn't supposed to exist. Five years of, if I remember, the best record anybody's ever had over five years. So this is reality, nine guys 23 or younger, and we're starting over in many respects."

On a night full of issues, the one that stood out most to Warriors players and coaches was the group's inability to get defensive stops. The Clippers shot 62.5% from the field and were 18-for-33 from beyond the arc.

"We f---ing sucked," Warriors forward Draymond Green said. "And we gotta get better. I'm not a coach, so I'm not about to go watch a film and say, 'Oh, well we can build on this.' I really don't give a damn about what we can build on. We sucked tonight, and we gotta get better overall. And that's just what it is."

Both Kerr and Green noted throughout the preseason that they were concerned about how the Warriors were performing on the defensive end, and those fears manifested on the floor Thursday night.

The drop-off in talent was on full display as the Warriors entered the season without injured All-Star swingman Klay Thompson, who still is recovering from a torn ACL. They also played without Kevin Durant, who signed with the Brooklyn Nets last summer, and veteran stalwarts Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. At times, some of the Warriors' young players looked lost on the floor.

"The easy answer is its one of 82, but there is some glaring things that we need to correct if we're going to win basketball games consistently," Warriors superstar Stephen Curry said when asked for his assessment of the game. "Credit the Clippers. They came off a pretty intense, hard-fought battle in L.A. in game one, so they were battle-tested in terms of being in that situation. They started the first six minutes with that same intensity."

The Warriors crowd also started the night with intensity as fans filled the seats inside the team's billion-dollar palace. Before the game began, Thompson delivered a speech, singling out Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber for their "vision" in getting the new arena built.

Once the contest began, things went downhill quickly. Green injured his right forearm less than three minutes in, after colliding with Clippers guard Patrick Beverley. Green was in a considerable amount of pain and went to the locker room to get checked out, returning at the beginning of the second quarter with what the Warriors said was an elbow contusion.

Green wore a compression sleeve on his arm after the game, acknowledging that the injury was "really sore," but he did not sound concerned about missing time.

Warriors center Kevon Looney returned to the starting lineup after missing almost all of training camp because of a right hamstring injury. After playing just 10 minutes, Looney did not return to the game in the second half after tweaking the same hamstring. His status for Sunday's game at the Oklahoma City Thunder is unclear.

The Clippers enjoyed playing the role of spoiler on the Warriors' opening night.

"We wanted to kind of beat them down," Beverley said. "Beat them down, beat them down, beat them down to the point that, it was me, Mo [Maurice Harkless], of course Kawhi [Leonard], [Landry Shamet] did a helluva job. We just kept putting bodies on them trying to make it as tough as possible."

The Warriors' misery continued off the floor, as well, after TNT analyst Charles Barkley noted during a halftime discussion that he wanted to change his prediction that the Warriors would make the playoffs.

"I was wrong before the game," Barkley said. "I said they were going to be the 7-, 8-seed. They're not going to make the playoffs, because they just can't score enough."

Thompson, who was a guest on set at the time, defended his team.

"Chuck has the right to be a little pessimistic," Thompson said. "But I think these young guys are going to step up, man."

Green didn't pay Barkley's comment much attention, either.

"I don't really listen to anything that he says," Green said.

After being knocked out by the Warriors in last season's playoffs, the Clippers added Leonard and Paul George to a core that already had established a winning culture.

When asked about how the Clippers ruined the Warriors' opening night, Leonard replied matter-of-factly, "I mean, that's our job."

ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.