England’s batter Jacob Bethell has shared his experience of batting with Virat Kohli in IPL 2026. Bethell played seven matches for RCB in IPL 2026 at an average of 13.71 and a strike rate of 124.67. The left-hander got his opportunity to open the innings with Kohli after Phil Salt was ruled out with an injury.

The youngster recalled that the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium was absolutely buzzing when he walked out to bat with Kohli. Bethell admitted he could not even hear himself think amid the loud crowd.

Bethell said on the Super Over YouTube Channel, “We were walking out to bat, and I couldn’t hear myself think. They’re just going, ‘Kohli..Kohli,’ the place is bouncing, there’s no really gap in it. They feel like they’re on top of you. Luckily enough, we managed to put on a few runs. I scored a few, he scored a few. I remember I hit my second ball for four, and I had never heard a sound that loud.”

The southpaw batter also revealed that Kohli didn’t give him a lot of advice while batting and just kept motivating him to keep up the good show.

“He is good with, like comes off the field and stuff, but he didn’t say a whole lot that game because I think I was going pretty well at the time, in terms of the knock. It’s just more encouragement rather than anything like you can play a shot, and you hear him go at the other end, ‘shot man!’”

Bethell also picked one shot he would like to add to his arsenal. The youngster added he would love to play Suryakumar Yadav’s pick-up scoop shot over deep fine-leg.

He concluded, “I would love to be able to play the Surya-like pick-up. I can pick it up over square leg, but someone’s bowling on top of middle, and you just go, head down, six.”

Bethell was awarded Player of the Match in the Lord’s ODI against India for his all-round performance with both bat and ball.