Phil Salt playing a shot against CSK.
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM
Royal Challengers Bengaluru needed an aggressive opener for IPL 2025. The franchise figured out Phil Salt was the man for the job.
In a YouTube video titled The Launch — Phil Salt Planning, it can be seen how impressed the RCB think-tank was while discussing the English player’s numbers.
“Are you serious… how is that even physically possible,” said mentor Dinesh Karthik after finding out the frequency at which Salt hits a boundary. Hence, RCB zeroed in on the 28-year-old as its primary target.
The team’s decision to shell out Rs. 11.5 crore to bring in Salt is showing all signs of being a wise investment. He scored a 31-ball 56 against Kolkata Knight Riders and followed it up with a 16-ball 32 against Chennai Super Kings as RCB started its campaign with two comprehensive victories. Seventy-four of these 88 runs came via boundaries.
Salt, who cracked a four off his first ball of the season, negated KKR and CSK’s spin threat by hitting boundaries at will — (4×4, 1×6) vs Varun Chakaravarthy and (2×4, 1×6) off R. Ashwin. Salt along with his opening partner Virat Kohli helped RCB amass 80/0 against KKR in the PowerPlay. The two were involved in a 45-run stand off five overs against CSK on Friday.
Salt said that the management wanted him to go for the big shots early and complement Kohli.
“It’s been made very clear to me why I’m here at RCB and what they were looking for in the auction to partner with Virat. I am very aware of the dynamics of the partnership. It’s to be aggressive and to take the pressure off the rest of the guys,” said Salt after RCB’s 50-run win over CSK.
“If you don’t take advantage of those early overs, then you can be left up against it when the spin comes on, and they can really take control of the game… it was spoken about,” added Salt.
Published – March 29, 2025 05:51 pm IST