Your Guardian Sport weekend: England v India, Club World Cup, tennis and NBA
Saturday
11am (all times BST)England v India live
Day two of the first Test gets under way with Rob Smyth and James Wallace your over-by-over hosts. India are seeking a first series win in England since 2007, having been held to a 2-2 draw last time out, a garland their new red-ball skipper, Shubman Gill, ranks higher than going all the way in the Indian Premier League. “You don’t get many opportunities as a captain to be able to come to England and you get to have a crack at the IPL every year,” says one of the IPL’s poster boys and a title winner with Gujarat Giants in 2022. “In my opinion winning a Test series in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa is bigger.” Ali Martin, Andy Bull and Simon Burnton are our reporting team at Headingley.
11amRoyal Ascot live
“It’s the biggest five days in our sport – our shop window,” says the leading jockey William Buick of the glittering five days of Royal Ascot. The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.40pm) is the highlight of the sun-baked meeting’s final day. Kevin Ryan’s Inisherin was a brilliant winner of the Commonwealth Cup over the course and distance 12 months ago, while the French raider Lazzat won his first six starts for Jérôme Reynier and, having bolted up back over six furlongs at Chantilly, has been snapped up by the powerful Wathnan Racing operation. One to watch is Aidan O’Brien’s Australian recruit Storm Boy. Tony Paley keeps the updates flowing with Greg Wood our reporter in top hat and tails at the Berkshire course.
2pmQueen’s Club men’s semi-finals
Under a broiling sun in west London, conditions have been particularly gruelling as some of the world’s leading players gear up for Wimbledon. Carlos Alcara, the top seed and 2023 winner, endured three hours and 23 energy-sapping minutes in beating his Spanish compatriot Jaume Munar on Thursday. The match may have been two hours shorter than his five-set French Open final win over Jannik Sinner earlier this month but the five-time grand slam champion suffered as temperatures soared to 32C. After a 15th straight win, the longest winning run of his career, a near-exhausted Alcaraz said: “It was a really tough battle.” Tumaini Carayol has all the action covered.
3.15pmEngland XV v France XV
An unfamiliar England face France for Saturday’s non-cap international. There are five uncapped names in Steve Borthwick’s makeshift squad, with three set to start, as call-ups to Andy Farrell’s British & Irish Lions have have given the head coach the chance to experiment. The late addition of Jack van Poortvliet to the Lions party means there will be 14 players unavailable when England run out for the final time before the summer tour to Argentina and the United States. Michael Aylwin reports from Twickenham.
8pmSpain v England, U-21s Euros live
The European Under-21 Championship 2023 winners face a rematch with Spain, whom they defeated to lift the trophy two years ago. But Lee Carsley’s side approach the quarter-final in patchy form having followed up last Sunday’s goalless draw with Slovenia with a disappointing 2-1 loss against Germany to round off the group stage. Slovenia’s defeat by the Czech Republic in the other final match in the group was enough to secure Carsley’s side passage to the last-eight tie in Trnava, Slovakia. Will Unwin keeps the updates flowing while Ed Aarons reports.
8pmJonathan Wilson
Our columnist considers the cult of personality at the revamped Club World Cup – how the individual walk-ons at the start of matches offer further proof, if any were needed, that Fifa is failing to understand that football remains a team sport – just ask Paris Saint-Germain, who unlocked European success by ditching their superstars.