Willingness to stand on my own two feet – Phil Salt reveals the blueprint behind his aggressive mindset
The introduction of Phil Salt to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru unit has completely changed the opening dynamics for the side.
In the last two years, Salt’s aggressive approach has added a new dimension to RCB’s batting echelons while also providing a threat factor in the Powerplay. Salt completed his second season with the Royal Challengers and in the last two seasons he has scored 605 runs from 19 matches at a combined strike rate of approximately 171.5.
More importantly, Salt has been on an IPL winning streak that has now reached its third consecutive year. In 2024, he lifted the trophy with KKR while following up that success with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2025 and 2026. However, have you ever wondered how an individual can be so aggressive when he picks up the willow? Well, Salt opened up on his belligerence and what really goes on in his mind while wielding the blade.
Talking on The Super Over podcast, Salt said, “I think a big part of it was a sort of willingness to stand on my own two feet and sort of take the bad days with the good days. I think not a lot of guys were playing that way when I started then. It was just coming into like big T20 leagues in the world like IPL, people were smacking it but there wasn't a load of guys doing it necessarily like in England, in the Blast.”
He further added, “Obviously you know a lot of guys do it now but I was like I feel like I looked at like J Roy (Jason Roy), Jonny (Bairstow), (Alex) Hales all those sort of guys and you know now there's loads of guys that bat like that at the top of the order but at the time in England there were three or four guys that went out and smacked it that would play a whole season and have a strike rate of, you know, 160 plus. So that was where I sort of thought, well, if I want to play for England, I'm going to have to do this.”
Salt continued, “At the time CJ (Chris Jordan) was quite important as well in that he would always remind me that, you know, in order to knock the man in possession. out, you have to do something that the man in possession can't do. Yes. So that was a big part of it. Um, and yeah, I think it's also the way that I play enjoy playing the game the most. I've never been one of those guys that, you know, like to knock it around, get run a ball 20, and then go. I've always liked taking the game on because I realized fairly quickly that when I get runs, we win.”
He concluded by talking about the balance between aggression and composure, stating, “obviously, but there's a balance to be found in that because you can't do it once competition. You have to be able to do it more often or at least, you know, I like I like the benchmark of like half and half. You can play a 14 game season, you can have an impact on, you know, seven games plus. You've done your job. I think you're flying.”
