In other countries, Phil Salt would be viewed through a different prism. His statistical record tells you he is a world-class batsman. The leader in his field.
His reputation here suffers from a lingering mistrust. For, despite it being the brainchild of English cricket and thriving in its third decade as the unequivocal financial muscle of the global game, Twenty20 is yet to receive the kudos commensurate with its more established international alternatives. As if being successful in it is simply down to a whirl of the wheel of fortune. Hit ball, will giggle.
At 29, however, Salt is highlighting the variant’s very serious side. He wins his 50th T20 international cap at Auckland’s Eden Park on Thursday, having set standards unlikely to be matched by those that follow.
In 46 innings to date, he has four hundreds. And since registering the most recent of those in his 42nd, an England-record 141 not out against South Africa at his home ground of Old Trafford, he has twice flirted with a fifth – hitting 89 against Ireland and 85 in Monday’s crushing victory over New Zealand in Christchurch.
Half of England’s eight T20 hundreds belong to him and his average of 38.5 and strike rate of 168 are national highs too.
In terms of centuries, the watermark for batsmen across all formats, he is arguably the best among all-comers. Yes, Australian Glenn Maxwell and India veteran Rohit Sharma have managed more, with five apiece, but it is worth noting that Maxwell’s fifth came in his 94th innings and Sharma’s in his 143rd. A reminder: Salt has had 46.
Phil Salt on his way to 85 during England’s victory over New Zealand in Christchurch on Monday. The opener now has the best T20 average, 38.5, of any England player
Salt scored England’s fastest T20 century, against South Africa in September, off just 39 balls. He went on to make 141 off 60 balls, his country’s highest T20 score
‘That will come as and when,’ Salt said, of achieving century No 5, after being caught on the rope at Hagley Oval. ‘I’m not going to try to force it. I’m certainly not going to chase it too hard and chase it away.
‘It’s really, really simple for me. One ball at a time, to put the team in the best position possible and have some fun while doing it.’
Such a relaxed reflection belies his attention to detail. Since committing to deeper analysis of his performances two years ago, he has scored 1,232 runs for England at 47.38, striking at 173.76 – just a tad under his Indian Premier League record of 175.7.
He is second only to Abhishek Sharma in the T20 international batting rankings and has also won the IPL twice with two different franchises across the past two seasons.
It can’t be coincidence. Opening batters set the tone for innings and if Salt gets through his calculated attempts to take down his new-ball opponents, he appears increasing likely to kick on these days.
This is down to a scientific approach on bowlers’ trends – assessing where they pitch the ball most often and how they construct overs pre-match, providing hunches on when they might look to throw in their bouncers or slower balls to aid his second-guessing out in the middle.
Recently, he has found a natural bedfellow in England’s new mind coach Gilbert Enoka, who encouraged note-taking in the New Zealand rugby team’s perpetual quest to get better over more than 300 internationals.
‘To have somebody who has spent such a long time in organisation like the All Blacks, even just to have a five-minute chat with him is worth its weight in gold,’ Salt says.
Salt uses an open blade and supple wrists to the guide the ball into gaps
The 29-year-old, who has tinkered with his batting technique, can also hit sixes when needed
His thirst for knowledge regarding others has also coincided with some tinkering with his own game: the raising of his bat in his stance has increased incrementally in the four years since making his international debut, to the point where he now resembles a baseball hitter.
But it is the most ludicrous of undersells to suggest he is a slugger. For a start, he predominantly deals in fours rather than sixes.
And his open blade and supple wrists make him the inverse of Michael Vaughan, a player who struggled to make his mark in limited-overs cricket because of a tendency to execute classical strokes. Whereas Vaughan all too often drilled directly to fielders for none, Salt has maximised his productivity by increasingly managing to manipulate the ball into the gaps, having improved his off-side game in particular.
Risks tend to be calculated ones. Like the off-field decision to take paternity leave earlier this year that allowed Jamie Smith to stake a claim to an opening spot with a strong series against West Indies.
It spoke of Salt’s confidence that privately he was ‘not worried about selection necessarily’ and of a more general underestimation of him by the rest of us that his future omission should even have been contemplated.
England’s World Cup worry
After working so hard a dozen years ago to break the gruelling cycle of Ashes tours being followed by World Cups – a schedule that jeopardised their chances of competing for silverware – England find themselves back at square one this winter.
Few involved at the 2003, 2007 and 2011 World Cups doubted that the fatigue factor of jetting to another continent a matter of days after finishing up what were then three-month trips Down Under contributed in part to underwhelming tournament performances in South Africa, the Caribbean and India.
Jofra Archer will be going straight from an Ashes tour into a T20 World Cup
As will Harry Brook who will be captaining the side in the World Cup in Sri Lanka
It is hard to say how much better England have fared since the ECB agreed with Cricket Australia to alter the positioning by playing back-to-back Ashes in 2013-14, because their maiden 50-over trophy was claimed on home soil in 2019, either side of two tournaments littered with baffling tactical decisions.
However, the past decade has undoubtedly seen an upturn in fortunes in Twenty20 World Cups, with England semi-finalists in each of the past four competitions and winners three years ago.
If that trend is to continue, though, it will require the overcoming of the demands placed upon their predecessors at the turn of century by a group of England players who will head to Sri Lanka for a pre-World Cup warm up tour just a fortnight after the final day of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.
And even though there will be changes in personnel, the spine of England’s Test squad includes white-ball captain Harry Brook, opener Ben Duckett, wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and bowlers like Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse.
Ashes warriors lose their spark
NEWS FLASH! The Ashes is going soft. First, there was Australian aggressor-in-chief Merv Hughes taking to social media to wish Gladstone Small, an adversary in England’s historic 1986-87 win, a happy birthday, referring to him as ‘a beautiful person.’
Former Aussie quick Merv Hughes has been being unusually nice to an England cricketer
While Stuart Broad admits his sarcastic behaviour during the last Ashes series was an ’embarrassment’
Then, Stuart Broad, England’s ultimate wind-up merchant, saying he was ‘filled with embarrassment’ watching back his pantomime exploits at Lord’s in the aftermath of Jonny Bairstow’s stumping two years ago.
Seems like there are job opportunities for villains on either side of Test cricket’s oldest rivalry in the coming weeks.
