CHENNAI: Phil Salt likes to score boundaries.
Sure, your counter could probably be all cricketers like hitting boundaries. Even among this cohort, the opener is an outlier. Right from when he comes out to open, either setting a target or chasing one, he likes to hit boundaries. Most of the time, it's fraught with risk. He exposes his stumps to go over the in-field or swipes across the line to target the usually vacant spaces on the on-side during the powerplay.
It doesn't matter who's bowling to him: left-arm wrist spin, left-arm pace, right-arm leg-break, hit-the-deck... across the 2024 edition, some of these bowling types have opened against Salt, the one who usually takes strike. He tries to take down all of them from ball one. That's why it wasn't a surprise that he danced down to Vaibhav Arora to thrash him through covers off the first ball for his new franchise last week. He had done it a fair few times for the defending champions in 2024.
It's why he takes strike. It's all about sending a message, setting the tempo and trying to get ahead of the game as soon as possible.
What Salt does, of course, isn't unique. Throughout the league, and the T20 landscape across the globe, a lot of batters are explicitly told to take on the field restrictions in the powerplay. What makes the 28-year-old unique, though, is his ability to marry aggression with execution.
In each of the last years in all of T20 cricket, Salt is part of an exclusive list of batters who have scored at least 500 runs in the powerplay on a YoY basis (Indians generally do not make this list as they aren't part of overseas leagues). Per this metric, the 28-year-old's 2024 numbers were off the charts — 946 runs across the first six overs while striking at 172.6.
"It is high-risk at times, but it is also about putting the odds in your favour and not taking the risks you don't want to," he had told the broadcaster after his 33-ball 68 against Delhi Capitals last year (60 off those came in the powerplay). "That's the sort of balance that every opening batter tries to strike. Sometimes you can miss the boat a few innings in a row, but you just gotta keep backing yourself and take those right options."
That's kind of what Bengaluru wanted when they brainstormed before the mega-auctions. They have had a couple of overseas openers in Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks, both of whose methods had admirers within the setup. But when they saw Salt's numbers, the franchise think-tank was blown away. "One in every four overs, he hits 16-runs plus?" queries Dinesh Karthik (their batting coach) in a pre-auction video since uploaded on YouTube. "Are you serious? How is that physically possible?" When the time came for the management to list out their preference for an opener, Salt, right across the board, was the top choice.
It really doesn't matter that he doesn't survive the powerplay for more than 50% of the time. Yes, since the start of 2021, he has been dismissed before the end of the powerplay 57%. But teams are happy to have him on their side because of the upside he offers. You extrapolate his 2024 T20 numbers and he will basically give RCB an average of 31 off 18 balls. It's a start they will live with every day of the week and twice on Sunday. What he also does fairly successfully is hit the first ball of the innings for a four or a six — on four occasions (three fours and a six), the first ball has disappeared out of 13 matches. A ridiculous high 30%. He also scores highly on back-to-back boundaries and has a high six to fours percentage (1.94 fours per every six in 2024).
The hosts will be ready for they know getting him out inside the first over or two offers them a route to control the first six overs. Who will win the opening gambit? Salt? Or the bowlers?
Time, as always, will tell.
Salt in T20 cricket (PP)
Year Runs S/R Outs/Innings played 4s/6s Avg
2021 516 139.45 21/35 66/14 24.57
2022 611 157.88 17/35 83/17 35.94
2023 793 153.98 26/47 99/28 30.5
2024 946 172.62 30/49 103/53 31.53
Salt's 2024 in IPL
Runs: 296 Outs per innings: 7/12 S/R: 185 4s/6s: 36/17 Avg: 42.28