Dhaka, Jan. 8 -- Brisbane will go into three days of strict lockdown later on Friday as the government tries to contain a more contagious variant of COVID-19, raising more doubts about the Gabba hosting next week's fourth cricket test between Australia and India.

The city's two million residents will be barred from leaving their homes for anything but essential business after a worker at a quarantine hotel in the city tested positive for the new strain of the virus first detected in Britain, reports Reuters.

The news will do little to ease widely reported concerns in the Indian touring party over what level of isolation they will be forced into when they leave Sydney for Queensland on Tuesday.

The series is tied at 1-1 and Australia we...