For Salt, the only shame was that it did not come in time to win an IPL deal. One partial explanation is that he suffered for having a minimum base price of £200,000 when he could have entered for as low as £50,000.
“It was a confusing morning,” Salt said. “I was expecting to be picked up, having gone there last year and done well, and the year that I’ve had.”
This was England’s 181st T20 international. In 18 years of playing the format, England’s players have scored six centuries. Salt has now made two of them in the space of three days, following up his 109 not out in Grenada with an even more rapid 119, requiring three fewer deliveries (48 rather than 51) to reach his hundred.
Over these 72 hours, there has been a sense of a batsman exploring the outer limits of his talent. Since his maiden England series in 2021, when he thrashed Shaheen Shah Afridi for 16 runs in the opening over of the innings, Salt’s audacity and ball-striking have never been in question.
Yet Salt has sometimes resembled a Powerplay specialist, in 20 and 50-over cricket alike. Until Saturday, he had played 213 games in professional T20 but no hundreds. He now has two. Both in Grenada and Trinidad, Salt didn’t just dominate the Powerplay; he had the range and nous to master the middle overs too.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
