England have hinted that they will pick Ollie Pope at No. 3 in their warm-up game against the Lions on Thursday, indicating that he is likely to beat Jacob Bethell to selection for the first Test against Australia in Perth next week.

Harry Brook said that players were told they will be "going hard" against the Lions in their three-day practice match by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes at the start of their Tuesday training session. Some England players may also feature for the Lions, who have brought an 18-man squad to Australia.

"That was partly what Baz and Stokesy said," Brook told England's social channels. "We're going hard. We're going to go 100%. We're going to try and beat them. I think we're going to be selecting an XI and playing against another XI, so it's not going to

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