Two months before he walked to the crease at Old Trafford with England needing 58 off 28 and five wickets down, Jacob Bethell had already described what he was going to do.
“Watching Virat chase, you understand the art of batting, how to control a chase and stay not out. It’s about shifting gears based on the situation.”
Jacob Bethell, RCB media release, May 4, 2026
He said this while opening the batting with Virat Kohli at Royal Challengers Bengaluru during IPL 2026. When Phil Salt was injured, that opening slot came available and Bethell took it, finding himself at the non-striker’s end alongside Kohli, over after over. He was not just watching. He was learning.
Kohli is the standard for T20 chase batting. He averaged over 67 while chasing in T20Is, rising to 79 in successful chases, and retired from the format in 2024 as one of its all-time leading run-scorers. When Bethell said watching Kohli taught him how to read a run chase, that was not flattery. That was a factual description of what Kohli gives to anyone close enough to watch him work.
Bethell had already shown the temperament was there. In the T20 World Cup semi-final against India at the Wankhede in March 2026, he scored 105 off 48 balls with England needing a big chase. They still lost by seven runs. He could not get them home. But the ability to take on Kohli’s own country in a World Cup knockout and carry the chase that far was already impossible to ignore.
At Old Trafford on July 4, against the same India side, he completed the job. As covered in an earlier piece on the match itself, England were 133 for 5 chasing 191. Bethell was on 42 off 36, well below the required rate, while wickets fell around him.
Then he identified his over. Ravi Bishnoi in the 17th: three sixes, two no-balls converted to free hits, 29 runs. Game over with an over to spare. He finished 76 not out off 46 balls.
His post-match words were as precise as the innings itself.
“Those kinds of chases, you don’t go rapid the whole time.”
Jacob Bethell, Player of the Match presentation, Old Trafford, July 4, 2026
Insider Read:
Kohli as the chase master is not a debate. Everyone knows it. What people rarely understand is the specific skill behind it, and how difficult it is to apply when the pressure is real.
Controlling nerves in a tight chase is one thing. Controlling your calculation while your nerves are firing is something else entirely. The natural instinct when the required rate climbs past 12 is to swing harder at everything. Kohli’s method says the opposite: absorb the overs you cannot hurt, identify in advance which bowler you are going after, and do not deviate until that moment arrives.
Bethell did not go after Bishnoi by chance. Bishnoi had already bowled a back-foot no-ball earlier in that match. That is a pattern, and patterns repeat when a bowler is under fatigue and pressure.
All the signs suggest Bethell had identified that combination before the 17th over started. Old Trafford has a short boundary to one side with the wind behind, and a wrist spinner’s trajectory sits up for a left-hander playing with the spin. The explosion was planned, not reactive.
The hardest part was the 36 balls before that over. Sitting at 42 runs while the required rate climbed, staying calm enough not to force it: that is the thing Bethell said Kohli showed him. At Old Trafford, under exactly that kind of pressure, against the same India side he could not beat in March, he applied every part of it.
As covered in an earlier piece on Brook’s England captaincy, the England captain confirmed what he saw.
“Yeah, he’s awesome to have out there. He rallies the troops really well when we’re out in the field. He’s so mature for his age, and he’s got a very long career ahead of him.”
Harry Brook, post-match presentation, Old Trafford, July 5, 2026
India captain Shreyas Iyer was equally direct.
“Credit where due: watching Bethell, he definitely took on the bowlers.”
Shreyas Iyer, post-match presentation, Old Trafford, July 4, 2026
The opposing captain acknowledged it was deliberate. A bowler identified. An over targeted. A game won. Virat Kohli does not need another record. But inside that 76 not out at Old Trafford, the fingerprints of the chase master are all over it.
SOURCES
- RCB media release, IPL 2026, May 4, 2026 SportsTak
- England vs India 2nd T20I live commentary, Old Trafford, July 4, 2026 ESPNcricinfo
- 2nd T20I match report, Old Trafford, July 4, 2026 ESPNcricinfo
- Brook post-match quotes, July 5, 2026 The Hans India
- Bethell, Brook and Iyer post-match reactions Sky Sports, YouTube
