England’s Harry Brook during the England vs Italy T20 World Cup match in Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on February 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
England captain Harry Brook expressed satisfaction after his side qualified for the Super 8 stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup after beating Italy by 24 runs in Kolkata on Monday (February 16, 2026).
Brook said they’re happy to have qualified despite not playing their best cricket. He noted their batting hasn’t clicked consistently, calling T20 a “fickle game” where fortunes swing fast. Brook urged the team to stay brave and keep taking their chances.
The Harry Brook-led England opted to bat first after winning the toss and set a big target of 203 runs for the fellow European side. Then they successfully defended the target and won the match.
“We haven’t played our best cricket, but at the end of the day, we’ve made it through, and we’re heading to Sri Lanka, so we can be happy about that. It’s been a little bit of a trend so far in this competition. We haven’t managed to string together the scores that we’d like to do as a batting unit, but that’s part of T20 cricket. It’s a fickle game. One day you can smack a hundred, and the next day you can get out first ball. We’ve just got to keep on being brave and taking our options on,” Brook said after the match.
Will Jacks made an unbeaten 53 off just 22 balls, which helped England cross the 200-run mark. With the ball, Jacks also scalped a wicket, which helped him earn the Player of the Match award.
Speaking after winning the POTM award, Jacks said, “We spoke about the last few games, keeping our intent up. I think we’ve been a little bit static at times, and we understood it was a very good surface, and we know this is incredibly fast scoring ground. So you never know, batting first, what is enough. So that was the intent the whole way through.”
“Yeah, it feels like that’s been a long time coming. There have been a few role changes in there and taken a while. So it’s nice to get that one. I feel like I’m settling into my role down the order quite nicely now,” he added.
Italy will play their last group-stage match against the West Indies on Thursday (February 19, 2026) at the same venue, while England have played all its group-stage matches.
Published – February 17, 2026 05:20 am IST
