Pope entered the series against India under pressure in his no 3 spot, with many calling for Jacob Bethell to potentially take his place with one eye on the Ashes this winter. However, Pope answered the questions with a defiant innings, scoring 100 from 125 deliveries with 13 fours, punching the air through gritted teeth as he clipped an inside edge to take him to triple figures. Jofra Archer in contention for England's second Test vs India 📰Scorecard: England vs India, first Test, Headingley🏏England men's cricket results and fixtures 2025 📋Stream England vs India with no contract His innings, which remains in tact heading into a pivotal day three, has been crucial in England clawing their way back into the contest after taking just three wickets on day one, however they still trail India by 262 runs having reached stumped on Saturday at 209-3. For England opener Duckett, it is another display that proves Pope can be a "match winner" for his side and he was overjoyed to see his team-mate get such a special moment in front of the Headingley crowd following so much external noise. "I had goosebumps for him," Duckett told Sky Sports. "He is such a good bloke and I love batting with him - I am sure Crawley would say the same. "You go one down and he comes in and takes all the pressure on you and scores quick. "He is such a legend and such a big part of this team. "We know there is noise outside the dressing room so to go and score 171 then 100 is something else. "If he does get in, he gets 100s and someone like him at 3 against India, it is a no brainer. "Popey scoring 100s and he did it away as well when we won- he is a match winner. "It is a great start to the series for him." Bumrah a 'cut above the rest' as he shows star power once again The one thorn in England's side so far in their first innings has been the world's No 1 bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who ended the day on brilliant figures of 3-48. A pearler of a delivery made Zak Crawley walk in the first over before he sent Duckett (62) on his way. Then, the crucial wicket came just before the end of the day as he dismissed Joe Root (28) for the 10th time in Test cricket. Bumrah then thought he had made it four wickets in the final over of the day to send Harry Brook (0no) walking for a duck but it was struck off for a no ball, a late reminder of the brilliance England will face in the morning. For Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain, it was the latest example of how Bumrah is a cut above the rest of India's bowling attack. "With how unorthodox he is, they could have had more wickets if they had caught well off him," Hussain said. "It will be a concern for India the drop off from when Bumrah is bowling to the rest. "But it is a small sample size, the others will get into the series. "Root was the big wicket- it was a poor short from Joe Root. "You could tell from Root walking off that he had just opened the door. "If they had got the Brook to make it the two Yorkies at the end, that would have been the lift for the dressing room needed as far as India is concerned." England vs India Test series ☀️ All games at 11am UK and Ireland; all live on Sky Sports First Test: Friday June 20-Tuesday June 24 - HeadingleySecond Test: Wednesday July 2-Sunday July 6 - EdgbastonThird Test: Thursday July 10-Monday July 14 - Lord'sFourth Test: Wednesday July 23-Sunday July 27 - Emirates Old TraffordFifth Test: Thursday July 31-Monday August 4 - The Kia Oval

It was revealed almost exactly a year ago that Lawrence, who took 18 wickets in five Tests for England between 1988 and 1992, was the latest sportsperson to be diagnosed with motor neurone disease, an incurable illness which progressively damages parts of the nervous system. A statement from Lawrence's family said: "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dave Lawrence MBE following his brave battle with motor neurone disease. "'Syd' was an inspirational figure on and off the cricket field and no more so than to his family, who were with him when he passed. "A proud Gloucestershire man, Syd took on every challenge with everything he could and his final contest with MND was no different. His willingness to encourage and think of others right up to the end was typical of the man he was." ECB chair Richard Thompson said: "David 'Syd' Lawrence was a true trailblazer of English cricket and a man of immense courage, character and compassion. "His impact on the game extended far beyond the boundary ropes. As a fast bowler, he thrilled crowds with his pace and passion. As a leader and advocate, he broke barriers and inspired change, becoming a powerful voice for inclusion and representation in our sport. "Even in the face of his illness, David showed extraordinary strength and dignity, continuing to uplift others with his resilience and spirit. He leaves behind a legacy that will endure in the hearts of all who love cricket. "Our thoughts are with his family, friends and the entire cricketing community at this time." As well as his six outings for England - having played a lone ODI against the West Indies at Lord's in 1991, collecting four for 67 - Lawrence bagged 625 wickets in 280 matches for Gloucestershire. A strapping fast bowler who was renowned for being one of the quickest on the county circuit, Lawrence began to establish himself in Tests and a five-for against the West Indies in 1991 helped England seal a series-levelling win at the Oval, with Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards among his haul. But Lawrence's career all but ended the following year as he badly fractured his kneecap after falling awkwardly when running into bowl on the final day of a Test against New Zealand in Wellington. His England days were immediately over aged 28 but he made a brief county comeback in 1997, playing four first-class games for Gloucestershire before hanging up his boots - 16 years after he first played professionally. Lawrence became a competitive bodybuilder following his retirement and he was also a nightclub owner in Bristol. After Lawrence detailed his experiences of racism during his playing career, Gloucestershire issued an unreserved apology in September 2021 and six months later he became the county's first Black president. Following his MND diagnosis, there were emotional scenes when Gloucestershire went all the way in the T20 Blast last year, with captain James Bracey presenting the trophy to Lawrence at Edgbaston. Lawrence's family statement added: "As president of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Syd took on the role with incredible pride and passion and loved every minute of it. "Syd's wife Gaynor and son Buster thank everyone for the kindness and support that has been shown to them and the family so far, and would ask that they are now given some time and space to grieve in private." Only last week, Lawrence received an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours for his outstanding services to cricket, while he had been working to raise money and awareness of his condition. He said: "It is an incredibly proud moment. It is not something that I ever thought would sit after my name but I am absolutely delighted that it will do so for however long I am here and will be a part of my legacy when I am gone." Cricket journalist Dean Wilson, who co-wrote Lawrence's autobiography, told Sky Sports News: "He was a terrifically important figure, he was a trailblazer. He was an inspiration as a player. Really a very important person in the game. "A hugely wholehearted, terrifying fast bowler at times. He never gave anything less than everything." 'A gentle giant' Sky Sports' Nasser Hussain said: "He was a gentle giant, a larger than life character that has passed away to a terrible disease. "Our thoughts are with his family, friends and all at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club." Sky Sports' Mark Butcher added: "He was a full-throttle, big-hearted individual who wore his heart on his sleeve. So proud to be from Bristol, so proud to represent England. "Every time you met him there was such a warmth, a genuine love of seeing his old friends and how much he enjoyed his time in the game."

That is reflected in the transfer fee, of course, which could reach £116m. These are extraordinary numbers for an extraordinary player and there is an opportunity cost to committing so much money on just one man. But this is the advantage of recruiting from a position of strength. Arne Slot had to reinforce the team's right side in the wake of Trent Alexander-Arnold's exit and has done so by bringing in Wirtz's Bayer Leverkusen colleague Jeremie Frimpong. There could be more movement in the attacking positions this summer too. Liverpool complete £116m Wirtz signingNo Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! 🔔Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season But with Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah staying it is a relatively stable squad, so the Premier League champions are tweaking rather than overhauling. That is a luxury that some of their rivals, however wealthy, cannot afford ahead of the coming campaign. Expect to read plenty - some of it written not a million miles away from here - about how the exciting Rayan Cherki could prove to be a revelation at Manchester City. But the Frenchman had long been offered to various Premier League clubs and comes with risk. "Magic or tragic" is how one senior Premier League scout sees Cherki's future prospects at City, while another, speaking to Sky Sports on condition of anonymity, suggests the gambles even elite clubs are taking reflect the difficult market. The hope is that Cherki is a hit, in which case spreading the budget around to solve other issues in Pep Guardiola's squad could be smart business. Instead of Wirtz, City have been able to bring in Rayan Ait Nouri and Tijjani Reijnders too, with funds to spare. But they arrive tasked with improving what was already a strong squad and with Guardiola in the rare position of playing catch up. Perhaps the City coach already regrets not refreshing things earlier, anticipating the problems before they emerged. "In the summer, the club considered it," acknowledged Guardiola. "And I said, 'No, I do not want signings. I have a lot of trust in these players'. I thought we could repeat our successes, but after the injuries we have had, maybe we should have signed players." The message that the signing of Wirtz sends is that Liverpool have no intention of making the same mistake. They know he will make a difference. It is a squad-building lesson that Michael Edwards, the club's chief executive of football, has already learned. Speaking to Ian Graham, Liverpool's former director of research, following the release of his book How to Win the Premier League, he told Sky Sports: "The prerequisite for understanding a transfer is understanding the strength and depth of your own squad." Graham and his colleagues recognised that when that version of Liverpool peaked, winning the Champions League and then the Premier League, it become difficult to strengthen. "There was often this argument about signing squad players," he explained. "You are spending money on an insurance policy, basically, and there are arguments for that. It is a quality problem to have to be able to say none of these transfer targets are actually as good as our current players. Most teams would kill to have that problem." In other words, you cannot just stash players. "I mean, you can," replied Graham. "But you cannot expect them to improve if they are not playing. They might become world-class by the time they are 25 but they just do not get that chance if they do not play." Better to get the guaranteed game-changer. Graham cited two famous examples of this at Liverpool. They had wanted to sign Salah in 2014 but were beaten to the player in the January transfer window by Chelsea. "The player we signed in 2017 was much more the finished product than that 21-year-old." Similarly, Graham had wanted to sign Sadio Mane before he went to Southampton. "Two years later, we paid Southampton £30m - and we were supposed to be the smart team. But the difference in price reflected a lower risk and a higher reward. Mane was proven." Wirtz is an extreme example of that phenomenon, the precocious playmaker having been the chief creator and a genuine leader in a Bayer Leverkusen side that went unbeaten domestically when doing the double and starred again this past season. During Graham's time at Liverpool, there was a policy of signing players around the age of 24 - not so young that their future progress was unclear but not so old either. "All of the big successes were in that age range." Wirtz is younger but the principle applies. At 22, with almost 200 appearances for Leverkusen and 31 caps for Germany, his pedigree is apparent. This is a best-in-class signing reminiscent of Alisson Becker and Van Dijk before him, future-proofing this Liverpool squad for the challenges ahead. And there will be challenges. Replacing Van Dijk and Salah is daunting and will need to happen eventually. But Wirtz moves the needle. Liverpool, perhaps surprisingly given Paris Saint-Germain's achievements, are favourites to win the Champions League. They will start as favourites to retain their Premier League title too. Because while there will be a sense of anticipation about how the plethora of new arrivals might possibly transform their rivals, there will not be a better player than Wirtz bought this summer. Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season From next season, Sky Sports' Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live. And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.

After the touring side lost their final seven wickets for 41 runs, Pope (100no) at times quite literally weathered the storm of some incisive, hugely-skilful Jasprit Bumrah (3-48) spells under cloud-laden skies in Leeds to survive through to stumps, bringing up his ton off 125 balls. Bumrah dismissed Zak Crawley (4) with a beauty to end his opening over, added Ben Duckett (62) - dragging one onto his stumps - after he and Pope shared in a 122-run partnership for the second wicket, and won his personal duel with Joe Root (28) late on. Scorecard: England vs India, first Test, Headingley🏏Day two as it happened - England fight back in Leeds ✍️▶️Not got Sky? Stream England vs India no contract 📺Got Sky Sports? Watch live on the Sky Sports app 📱 Bumrah was threatening throughout, missing out on golden chances to add further to his haul as Duckett was dropped on 15 by Ravindra Jadeja at point, Pope was put down on 60 by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the slips and then he himself was guilty of overstepping when dismissing Harry Brook for a duck off a no-ball in the final over of the day. Pant somersaults to sparkling century Earlier, with India resuming the second morning on 359-3, England did brilliantly to bowl the visitors out for 471 as, after Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant's 219-run fourth-wicket stand was finally ended, Ben Stokes (4-66) and Josh Tongue (4-86) combined to run through the lower order. Pant (134) became India's third centurion of their first innings, somersaulting in celebration after bringing up his seventh Test ton with one of six maximums for his uniquely devastating knock. The first hour had otherwise been a little flat, the usually vocal Headingley crowd a little subdued as India continued to accumulate and passed 400 with ease, though they were violently awoken from their slumber by the sheer audacity of some of Pant's shot-making. A newly-dubbed 'falling paddle' brought him four off Shoaib Bashir as, off balance and halfway to the floor, Pant somehow still connected with his scoop fine to the fence, while it was no surprise to see his 146-ball hundred brought up with a six. Out of nowhere, the partnership was finally ended as Bashir (1-100) earned richly-deserved reward for a strong, sustained spell of bowling when Gill (147) toe-ended one out to deep backward-square. Pant continued to play his shots regardless and should have been out stumped in Bashir's next over when losing his grip on the bat as he tried to send one into orbit over the Western Terrace, but Jamie Smith failed to gather the ball. Stokes and Pope at forefront of England fightback The missed chance would only cost England 10 further runs off his bat as, after Pope claimed a stunning, leaping grab at cover to see off Karun Nair for a duck - one of three for the Indian innings - Tongue would pin Pant in front lbw. Stokes and the England management have made a point of wanting to manage his workload this summer after numerous niggles over the years and with this winter's Ashes in mind, but Stokes sensed an opportunity to sniff out a seventh in the seventh over of his spell, and he did just that as Shardul Thakur (1) nicked off on the stroke of lunch. Tongue then mopped up Bumrah (0), Jadeja (11) and Prasidh Krishna (1) without too much trouble after the interval, dismantling the stumps of the latter two to complete the collapse. But, as happy as England will have been with their morning's work, the changing overhead conditions prompted concern for what lay ahead with the bat. Crawley and Duckett were therefore all too happy to immediately turn back around to the safety of the England dressing room when, just as play was about to resume, rain arrived. A short, sharp shower delayed proceedings by little more than 30 minutes though and gloomy, bowler-friendly conditions remained to welcome England's openers back to the middle, albeit only briefly in the case of Crawley. Bumrah struck with the final ball of the first over, Crawley edging a near unplayable delivery to slip that shaped into his pads before jagging away late. There'd be a hearty lbw shout, and review, against Duckett soon after, as well as edges through the slips and then that dropped chance by Jadeja. But in among the near misses and half chances, England were rattling along at quite the rate, Duckett bringing up a 68-ball half century and Pope off 64 either side of tea. The return of Bumrah, of course, would halt the burgeoning stand, Duckett bowled off an inside edge, and the India quick would also end Root's uncharacteristically scratchy knock late in the day as the ICC's top-ranked bowler and batter went head-to-head. A fourth wicket of Brook with just three balls remaining would have soured England's evening futher but he'd survive courtesy of one of three no-balls for the over as Bumrah strained sinew for one final breakthrough. Duckett: I had goosebumps for Pope England opener Ben Duckett: "I had goosebumps for him [Pope]. It is a great start to the series for him. "He is such a good bloke and I love batting with him, and I am sure Crawley would say the same. "You go one down and he comes in and takes all the pressure off you and scores quick. He is such a legend and such a big part of this team. "We know there is noise outside the dressing room, so to go and score 171 [against Zimbabwe] and then 100 today is something else. "If he does get in, he gets hundreds, and someone like him at number three against India, it is a no brainer. He is a match winner." Nasser: Bumrah a different level to the rest Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain: "With how unorthodox Bumrah is, India could have had more wickets if they had caught well off him. "It will be a concern for India the drop off from when Bumrah is bowling to the rest. But it is a small sample size, the others will get into the series. "Root was the big wicket - it was a poor shot from him. You could tell from Root walking off that he had just opened the door [for India]. "If they had got the Brook wicket to make it the two Yorkies at the end, that would have been the lift the dressing room needed as far as India is concerned." Watch day three of the first Test between England and India, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am on Sunday (11am, first ball) or stream with no contract. England vs India Test series ☀️ All games at 11am UK and Ireland; all live on Sky Sports First Test: Friday June 20-Tuesday June 24 - HeadingleySecond Test: Wednesday July 2-Sunday July 6 - EdgbastonThird Test: Thursday July 10-Monday July 14 - Lord'sFourth Test: Wednesday July 23-Sunday July 27 - Emirates Old TraffordFifth Test: Thursday July 31-Monday August 4 - The Kia Oval

Rashford, who has been training in Spain ahead of pre-season, has praised the 17-year-old sensation during an interview with Spanish influencer Javi Ruiz. When asked pointedly if he would like to play alongside Yamal, Rashford said: "Yes, for sure. Everyone wants to play with the best. Hopefully... we'll see." Barcelona sporting director Deco went public last month that the Catalan side "like" Rashford, along with Liverpool winger Luis Diaz. Transfer Centre LIVE! | Man Utd news & transfers🔴Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! 🔔Got Sky? Watch Man Utd games LIVE on your phone📱Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺 The Catalan giants are also believed to be interested in Athletic Club winger Nico Williams. Sky Sports News reported earlier this month that Manchester United had not received any offers for Rashford, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa. The England international is under contract at Old Trafford for another three years but his future at the club remains unclear. On Yamal, Rashford added: "It's difficult to put into words what he's doing because he's not supposed to be doing that at 16 or 17. I don't think we've seen that before." Rashford is one of several players linked with an Old Trafford exit this summer as head coach Ruben Amorim looks to reshape his squad after the club's lowest-ever Premier League finish last season. Christian Eriksen, Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof have all been released while Jadon Sancho, Antony and Alejandro Garnacho are also said to be available. Juventus have explored the conditions of a deal for Sancho, with Napoli also interested in the player, who has a year left on his contract and spent last season on loan at Chelsea. In terms of incomings, United have completed a £62.5m move to sign Matheus Cunha from Wolves and are also interested in Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo and Sporting striker Viktor Gyokeres. Monaco interested in Onana Meanwhile, Monaco are interested in signing Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana, according to Sky in Italy. The French club are understood to be exploring the conditions of a deal for the 29-year-old. Onana has been linked with an exit this summer after making numerous high-profile errors at Old Trafford. He has three years left on his contract having joined from Inter Milan for £47.3m in July 2023. Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season From next season, Sky Sports' Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live. And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.