Phil Salt cut a frustrated figure early in his innings at Trent Bridge, loudly swearing at himself in self-admonishment after a play-and-miss and sarcastically celebrating a toe-ended boundary through third man. But he overcame an uncharacteristically slow start to top-score for England with 70 off 44 balls, and his innings was quickly put into context by India’s collapse to 76 all out.
Salt faced a first-over maiden from Arshdeep Singh and blamed a struggle to pick the ball against a backdrop of Nottinghamshire members beneath the pavilion’s sightscreen. He looked scratchy early on as he reached 17 off 19 balls at the end of the ninth over. As a batter used to flying out of the blocks, Salt said the scenario felt like “foreign territory”.
But he clicked into gear by pulling a drag-down from Varun Chakravarthy for six and managed 53 off his final 25 balls. Sam Curran’s unbeaten 41 and Will Jacks’ cameo took England to 201 for 7, a score that Salt described as “20 over par” on a surface trickier than many had expected, and Salt nearly outscored India on his own.
Harry Brook, England’s captain, said that Salt had played “a mega innings” while Jofra Archer, his former Sussex team-mate, suggested that Salt’s patience was a reflection of his maturity. “At one point, he was five from nine [actually six off nine] and the Phil of old probably would’ve gotten out within the next few balls,” Archer said. “I’m really glad for him for sticking at it.”
Salt is not yet 30 but is a veteran of 342 T20 matches, and said that he had tried to stay calm. “It’s definitely foreign territory in T20 cricket, the way the game’s going, being on the slower side of things,” he said. “But it’s so valuable as a batter to have that time to assess the conditions and to make sure that you’re making smart decisions, and mitigating risk to the best of your ability.
“Part of being an opening batter in T20 cricket – especially when you’re playing against sides like India – is getting off to a good start and putting them under pressure. Our start wasn’t electric – we didn’t fly out of the blocks – but that gave us time to assess and communicate what the surface was doing, what they were doing.
“Sometimes, it works and it’s easy; sometimes, you’ve got to fight a bit harder, and find a different route into the game. Things have changed here [at Trent Bridge] in white-ball cricket over the last few years; pitches don’t necessarily have the same look about them that they used to when they were really good batting wickets.”
Salt’s slow start may also simply have been linked to a lack of recent cricket: he had only batted twice in matches since breaking his finger while fielding at the Indian Premier League [IPL] in April. Since then, he has 34 off 31 balls for Lancashire in the Blast, and fell first ball in Saturday’s second T20I in Manchester.
He did return to India with his broken finger to watch the knockout stages as Royal Challengers Bengaluru [RCB] won a second successive IPL title. However, he admitted that he was never likely to return from his complete spiral fracture in time to play. “The specialist gave us a timeline and six weeks would’ve been the day of the final,” Salt said. “It was always going to be a big ask to come back.”
England can clinch a series win in Bristol on Thursday night against the world champions. They have become a hugely consistent T20 team since Brook took over as captain last year. They have won 18 of their last 21 completed games and can exact some revenge on India in this series after their seven-run defeat to them in March’s T20 World Cup semi-final.
“Hopefully, we’ll go to Bristol and put in a similar performance,” Salt said. “With the way we’re playing, not necessarily with just bat and ball, but the way we’re assessing conditions, we’re doing all the things that are required of you to be a top team. I feel like we’re doing well at the moment, but the next two games are really important for us.”
