Phil Salt

Born in Wales but raised in Barbados, Phil Salt has built a career on fearless strokeplay, adaptability and an appetite for high-pressure cricket. While he was a football enthusiast in his childhood, Salt gravitated towards cricket after moving to the Caribbean, where he developed the aggressive instincts that went on to help him become one of England's most explosive white-ball batters.

After earning a scholarship to Reed's School in Surrey, he joined Sussex and emerged as a noticeable talent in 2018, scoring more than 700 County Championship runs, including two first-class hundreds, while also smashing 355 runs in the T20 Blast at a strike rate above 172 to help his side reach the final. He moved to Lancashire in 2022 and continued his red-ball form, scoring 349 runs that season and 433 in the next.

Initially a predominantly leg-side hitter, he expanded his range to become equally destructive through the off side and straight down the ground, and quickly became a popular pick in the T20 franchise circuit. His batting was influenced by England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow, and like them, Salt could impose himself on bowlers right from the start whatever the format or batting position he was in.

He made his England debut in 2021, but the real breakthrough came the next year when he scored a half-century on T20I debut and followed it with his maiden ODI hundred during England's world-record 498-run assault against Netherlands. In 2023, he smashed back-to-back T20I centuries against West Indies, including 119 off 57 balls, then England's highest individual T20I score, which he overtook himself in 2025 with a stunning unbeaten 141 against South Africa as England crossed 300 in a T20I for the first time.

Salt won the 2022 T20 World Cup with England, but with minimal contribution himself, having played only one match - the final. He had far more impact in his IPL wins. After going unsold in the 2024 auction, he was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders as a replacement for Roy and went on to score 435 runs at a strike rate of 182 in a title-winning campaign. A year later, he won the title again, this time with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who bought him for US$1.37 million. He's also reached the final of the Hundred twice with Manchester Originals.