They fared poorly and had no answers to India’s tight bowling from the first ball.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) would be worried about the performances of their overseas English trio – Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, and Jacob Bethell – during the first T20I against England in Kolkata. They fared poorly and had no answers to India’s tight bowling from the first ball.
Phil Salt, bought at a whopping INR 11.50 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, was the first to fall, getting out on the third delivery of the match on a duck off Arshdeep Singh’s bowling. He was surprised by a sharp bouncer by the speedster, and while he went for a big shot, Salt could only get a leading edge and gave a straightforward catch to Sanju Samson.
Liam Livingstone was the second batter to fail and couldn’t open his account either. He is susceptible to spin and was undone by a fast googly by Varun Chakravarthy.
The batter tried making room and driving towards the off-side region but couldn’t handle the zip; the ball kept getting quicker, leading to a two-ball duck. He could have avoided exposing his stumps since Varun always targets the sticks and his lines remain straight, but Livingstone never had a chance to play that shot.
Jacob Bethell, bought for INR 2.60 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, was England’s third RCB batter to fail. During his short stay, Bethell was at sea and never looked comfortable as he failed to rotate the strike.
He scored seven runs in 14 deliveries at No.6 before holing out to Abhishek Sharma at deep midwicket while trying to break the shackles. Bethell might not be suited to bat as low as No.6 since he is mostly a middle-order batter and suited somewhere at No.4.
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RCB have invested heavily in these three players and will be crucial in their batting lineup next season. However, their performances must have left the management concerned, especially how they threw their wickets without applying themselves.
It might be a one-off match, where everyone, barring Jos Buttler, failed for England. But they must be prudent with their shot selection rather than playing reckless strokes, irrespective of the deck.
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