London [UK], July 11 : Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj paid a tribute to late Liverpool, Portugal footballer Diogo Jota following a wicket during the third Test against England at Lord's on Friday.
During England's first innings, Siraj ended with a tally of 2/85 in 23.3 overs.
After removing an in-form Jamie Smith, Siraj made a hand sign saying "20", Jota's jersey number for Liverpool and looked up to the sky. The video of the same was posted on Star Sports' official X handle.
In their first innings, England posted 387/10, thanks to a 109-run third wicket stand between Joe Root (104 in 199 balls, with 10 fours) and Ollie Pope (44 in 104 balls, with four boundaries) and a counter-attacking eighth wicket stand between Jamie (51 in 56 balls, with six fours) and Brydon Carse (56 in 83 balls, with six fours and a six).
Jasprit Bumrah (5/74) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (2/62) also delivered with the ball.
Coming to Jota, he died in a car accident on July 3 in Spain at the age of 28. At the time of the accident, Jota was with his brother in the car, as reported by Sky Sports.
Jota began his football career in his hometown of Porto in Portugal, where he played for the Pacos de Ferreira academy before joining Atletico Madrid in the Spanish League in 2016. However, he never played for Atletico Madrid and later returned to Porto on loan. In 2018, the Portuguese player was signed by the Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, also known as Wolves, and for the next two years, he was under the fellow Portuguese manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
In September 2020, Jota was signed by another Premier League club, Liverpool. With the Reds, he won this season's Premier League 2024-25 title. He was also part of the Liverpool squad that lost to Real Madrid 1-0 in the 2021/22 Champions League final, where he came on as a substitute. For Liverpool, the player featured in 26 games this season and scored six goals.
Jota made his debut for the Portugal national team in November 2019 and featured in the Euro 2022 and 2024 for his national side. However, he was not part of the squad during the FIFA World Cup 2022, as he was out injured. Recently, in May this year, Jota was part of the Portugal side which won the UEFA Nations League, defeating Spain in penalties and winning their second Nations League title.