Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 9 : England and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star batter Phil Salt spoke on his equation with the team's superstar batter Virat Kohli during the Indian Premier League (IPL) winning 2025 season, saying that it is very important to have a strong relationship with your opening partner, that "connection" between them developed as soon as they arrived first in the dressing room.
RCB ended their 18-year wait for an IPL title, beating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final earlier this year. While Virat was at his consistent best and delivered his third successive 600-run plus season with the bat, he had an explosive Salt to rely on, who could play his shots from ball one and give the Indian icon some time to settle.
Salt had a very fine season, continuing from where he had left off in the 2024 season with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which was also a title-winning campaign. In 13 matches and innings, Salt scored 403 runs at an average of 33.58, with a strike rate of almost 176 and four fifties, with a best score of 65.
Speaking during the podcast on building his relationship with Virat as his fellow partner-in-attack, Salt said, "It is always important to have a strong relationship with whoever you're opening with. You need to understand how they play, and they need to understand your game too, so that you can bring the best out of each other. We started building that connection from the moment we both arrived here, and I am really pleased with how it is developing."
Salt said that conversations around their respective roles as openers kept happening between them in the middle, and sometimes, it did not need them to speak a word.
"You can just sense how the other guy is playing. In Jaipur, for example, there was not much chat at all, it was just obvious that whenever Virat got on strike, he was happy to rotate it to me. On other days, like the game in Delhi, either of us could have gone on a run. Both of us were striking it well, and it just worked out that I took charge at the start of the third over. Sometimes you talk it through, and sometimes it happens completely organically. It is a moving picture," he said.
Salt admitted that while cricket demands a far more attacking style of play, it could not lead to same consistency and chasing an Orange Cap in the IPL is not an option anymore.
"Cricket now demands a far more attacking style of play. Does that make it the most consistent approach? Probably not. There was a time when a batter could think about pushing for the orange cap, but that mindset doesn't really work in the IPL anymore. For me, and for most of our batting group, it IS not about individual awards. Everything is centred around how we win as a team, and that, for me, is the most important thing in the IPL," he concluded.
Salt, who was signed by RCB ahead of the 2025 season for Rs 11.50 crores, is one of the retained players ahead of the auction this year, taking place on December 16.
Retained Players: Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Krunal Pandya, Josh Hazlewood, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, Nuwan Thushara, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Yash Dayal, Abhinandan Singh, Rasikh Dar.
Released Players: Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee.
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