Player Profile

Phil Salt is, alongside Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone, a T20 World Cup champion after helping England to success in Australia in late 2022. The dynamic wicketkeeper batter was parachuted into the business end of the tournament as a result of an injury to Dawid Malan and played the semi-final and final.

Salt didn’t bat in the last four demolition of India at Adelaide and made 10 from number three in the final against Pakistan at Melbourne.

Six weeks or so earlier, he smashed a brilliant 88 not out off 41 balls at the top of the order in a T20 clash with Pakistan in Lahore, making light work of a 170 chase.

Earlier in the year, against the Netherlands in Amstelveen, the North Welshman whacked a superb 122 in a short ODI series.

Then, in a December 2023 T20 series in the West Indies, he crashed brilliant back-to-back centuries at the top of the order - 109 not out off 56 balls and 119 off 57. The latter remains England’s highest ever individual score in T20I cricket.

His performances came around the time he, surprisingly, went unselected in the auction for the 2024 Indian Premier League. But he was picked up by Kolkata as an injury replacement for Jason Roy. In 2025, he will play alongside Liam Livingstone for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Before those twin centuries in the Caribbean, Salt was not an automatic selection in England’s white ball teams, indicating their recent strength in depth. But, following some disappointing results for the team and a reset with some senior players moving on, that has very much changed.

He has been selected as both a wicketkeeper-batter and a specialist batter in recent times.

In recent seasons, Salt - a Manchester Original when it comes to the Hundred - has seen his county commitments come around sporadically given his exposure elsewhere.

He has two centuries to his name for Lancashire - both in the 2023 Rothesay County Championship.
The first, 103, came as he opened the batting in the first innings of a June win over Hampshire at Southport. The second, 105 batting at four, came in the first innings of a win over Northamptonshire at Wantage Road the following month.

In 2024, he only played three times in the Blast, racing to 70 off 45 balls in a home win over Nottinghamshire during that period.

Salt, now aged 28, signed for Lancashire ahead of the 2022 summer from Sussex, for whom he first played second-team less than a week after his 17th birthday in September 2013.

Bodelwyddan-born, he was raised in Manchester but lived in Barbados for a few years from the age of 10.

Salt played all formats for Sussex and scored five centuries for them; four in the County Championship and one in the One-Day Cup.

Surprisingly, he never kept wicket for Sussex in Championship cricket - he did in T20 cricket. But he took on that role against the red ball immediately upon joining Lancashire in 2022.

He made 97 on debut in the first innings of early season victory over Kent at Canterbury, his best contribution amidst an excellent seven games in his first campaign.

He claimed 20 dismissals behind the stumps in Championship cricket and, from the middle order, hit 349 runs in eight innings at an average of 43.62. His lowest score was 21.

Destructive Salt was a key member of the Lightning’s run to the Vitality Blast final in 2022. He opened the batting and with a top-score of 59 on debut against Yorkshire in the Emirates Old Trafford tie in late May. In the semi-final against the same opponent at Edgbaston, with Lancashire chasing 205, he blasted a crucial 36 off 15 balls to set the tone for a successful pursuit.

Salt has played franchise cricket in countries such as Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, the UAE and Sri Lanka. He won the Pakistan Super League with the Lahore Qalandars in March 2022.

He is a live-wire in whatever role he takes on, be it with the bat, gloves or in the outfield.

Having lived in Barbados, it would have been special for him to make his T20 international debut on the island in January 2022, scoring 57 from number six in a narrow defeat against the West Indies.

He had already made his ODI debut the previous July against Pakistan at Cardiff - in his birth country.

Away from the game, he’s a big Manchester City football fan.