Caitlin Clark's groin strain sidelines her for Fever's 3rd game in row, Commissioner's Cup vs. Lynx

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark was ruled out of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup final on Tuesday with a strained groin, her third straight absence for the Indiana Fever.

The Fever announced on their pregame injury report that Clark would sit against the Minnesota Lynx in the championship game of the league's in-season tournament. The game does not count toward the regular-season standings.

“She’s making progress,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “Making progress and feeling good are two different things. We want to make sure that she feels good. We want to make sure that she’s confident. We want to make sure that we’re not putting her in a position to have any setbacks.”

Clark, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft and one of the two captains selected for the WNBA All-Star Game later this month, never missed a game in college at Iowa or with the Fever as a rookie. A strained quadriceps earlier this season kept her out for five games.

The game against the league-leading Lynx was another high-profile matchup Clark's absence put a bit of a damper on. She missed Indiana's game on Friday at Dallas that would have pitted her against Wings rookie Paige Bueckers and featured the top picks of the last two drafts.

“Caitlin has a lot of gravity — she’s an amazing player,” said Minnesota's Napheesa Collier, the other captain selected for this year's All-Star Game. “They have a lot of really good players, so not by any means is it going to be an easy game. It’s still going to be a really hard fight.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark reacts during the first half in a WNBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Sparks, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Seattle Storm guard Erica Wheeler looks on as Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) falls while reaching for the ball during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark eats Goldfish crackers during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Indiana Fever players, from left, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark react on the bench during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings Friday, June 27, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Shreyas Iyer was provisionally named in India’s squad on Saturday for the home one-day international series against New Zealand starting Jan. 11.

India will host the Black Caps in a white-ball engagement — three ODIs and five T20s — in the build-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Iyer returns to the international fold after sustaining a spleen injury during an ODI against Australia in Sydney last October.

His selection is subject to fitness clearance from BCCI’s medical team and he will return as India’s vice-captain for the three-match series.

Skipper Shubman Gill also returns, after he missed the ODI series against South Africa in December. He had a neck spasm in the test series earlier, and subsequently played in the T20s against the Proteas.

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Verma missed out. Gaikwad had scored a maiden ODI hundred against South Africa in Visakhapatnam.

Rishabh Pant is retained as second keeper-batter behind Lokesh Rahul, who had stood in as captain against the Proteas.

Star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had both participated in the domestic List A tournament — Vijay Hazare Trophy — and return to the international stage for the ODIs.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya is fit, but not sufficiently enough to bowl 10 overs in an ODI. Thus, he has been rested further ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup (in India and Sri Lanka) starting Feb. 7. Nitish Kumar Reddy is included in the squad.

Pacer Mohammed Siraj returns to lead the bowling lineup with Jasprit Bumrah rested again. Siraj had missed the South Africa series because of workload management.

The three ODIs will be played in Vadodara (Jan. 11), Rajkot (Jan. 14) and Indore (Jan. 18), with the five-match T20 series starting Jan. 21.

Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

FILE - Captain of Punjab Kings Shreyas Iyer addresses a news conference on the eve of the final match of Indian Premier League at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)