Phil Salt: On the Radar

This exclusive interview features in the Sussex Sharks Vitality Blast tournament programme. Pick up your copy at tonight’s game or order online here!

Performances at home and abroad earned Phil Salt an England call earlier this year. He tells Matt Pole about the thrill of that honour - and how Jason Gillespie's belief is helping him progress.

This has been a whirlwind 12 months and one laden with achievement for Phil Salt.

The 22-year-old was an integral part of Islamabad United’s Pakistan Super League side, rubbing shoulders with New Zealand wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi and former England star Iain Bell as he hit 94 runs in six games.

Salt and Islamabad couldn’t retain their 2018 title, losing the last preliminary play-off for the final to Peshawar Zalmi, but this blow has since been cushioned in the most wonderful way imaginable.

Before England’s T20 international in May against Pakistan, Middlesex batsman Dawid Malan was ruled out through a groin injury. With a space up for grabs, Salt was swiftly added to a squad that already boasted his Sussex team-mates Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer.

Although Salt didn’t make the England first XI, the Welsh-born batsman took a lot on board on and off the pitch during his time in a star-studded dressing room – even if he did have to pinch himself at times.

“The Lions had sniffed around in the past but nothing ever happened so to get the call, it was nice to know I was on their radar,” says Salt.

“I’d been performing in the winter and I had a couple of moments where I looked round the dressing room and went ‘bloody hell everyone else here is an international cricketer and I’m the only one here not’.

“The best thing I got out of it was chatting to the lads and realising how simple they kept it. It was brilliant being around these guys. Being around those guys, like a lot of those top cricketers in the winter, it was more the stuff off the pitch.

“It’s the stuff that makes you realise how much you need to know about your mental space, what you’re thinking, how much you back yourself in certain scenarios, rather than how you train. I found that really interesting. Some guys like to hit loads of balls, others barely any.”

Salt credits Sussex’s Australian coach Jason Gillespie with allowing him to flourish at The 1st Central County Ground.

The Bodelwyddan-born player became a first-team mainstay at Hove during the 2018 Specsavers County Championship division two campaign. He notched 739 runs in 14 innings, averaging 30.79. Salt started the 2019 in similarly fine fettle, notching up 376 runs in nine innings at an average of 41.78, before a hand injury curtailed his early-season promise.

Gillespie’s ‘very simple’ style and ‘massive belief’ in the players has seen him heap praise on the Australian bowling legend.

“Dizzy’s one of those people who will always back you. He’s got massive belief in the boys. He knows a good player when he sees one and if he rates you he’ll back you to the hilt,” Salt adds.

“He keeps things very simple and he’s not too flashy. There are loads of coaches who love a cliche and love a buzzword but he keeps it really simple. That’s the best thing about working with him.”

Stellar performances in T20 cricket in 2018 also helped Salt gain his England call. The young batsmen bludgeoned 355 runs in 14 innings, at a strike-rate of 172.33, as the Sharks reached the final of the Vitality Blast before suffering a five-wicket loss at the hands of Worcestershire Rapids.

The Rapids defeat still rankles with Salt, but he recognises similar white-hot performances in this year’s competition will see England’s T20 selectors come knocking on the door once more.

“It’s all about performances. I had a good T20 campaign last year and hit four 50s or whatever it was. The defeat in the final against Worcestershire did sting a bit but that’s sport. It’s the nature of the beast.

“Someone was always going to fall short and it just happened to be us. But I’m sure in the future, going forward, we’ll be on the right side of the result more than often with this group of players that we’ve got.

“Hopefully I can do the same again and get a good strike-rate at the top of the order and keep moving games away from the opposition, hopefully England will see that and I’ll appear in their plans for the future.”

The Sussex Sharks Vitality Blast tournament programme features:

• Exclusive player interviews with Jofra Archer, Luke Wright, Danny Briggs, Chris Jordan, Laurie Evans, Tymal Mills & Phil Salt
• Quick Singles with… George Garton & Delray Rawlins
• Overseas player profiles – Rashid Khan & Alex Carey
• ‘The Summer Collection’ – a fashionista’s review of every Sussex Sharks T20 kit
• Will Beer’s guide to bowling leg-spin in T20 cricket
• Squad profiles of all nine teams
• & more!

Get your copy at the match tonight or online here!