England and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opener Phil Salt opened up on his equation with Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir was the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor in IPL 2024 when Salt played for the franchise for the first time in the tournament.
With his destructive attitude, Salt scored 435 runs in 12 matches, averaging 39.55 and scoring at a strike rate of 182.01. While thinking about his experience with Gambhir in the IPL, Salt felt that the former Indian opener’s competitiveness helped him connect with him.
“Brilliant experience doesn’t get any better than you know, coming in and winning the IPL first and foremost. I think GG is no stranger to Indian cricket fans and cricket fans around the world. He’s, you know, his playing record speaks for itself and what I found as a player. Just listening to him in his sort of mentoring role,” Phil Salt said during the CEAT Cricketing Rating Awards.
“What a competitor. I could really relate to him from that point of view. He’s always looking for those one percent what’s going to get the individual to be better and what’s going to get the team over the line. So I loved working for him. You know one word would be a competitor,” he added.
Salt was a vital cog in KKR’s winning run in IPL 2024, where they topped the points table and defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. However, Salt had to leave the IPL 2024 before the playoffs began as the ECB recalled its players for the home T20I series against Pakistan.
The main bit of advice that I took from Gautam Gambhir was…: Phil Salt
The English opener revealed the piece of wisdom he received from Gambhir that helped him simply score runs.
Salt recalled a chat he had with Gambhir during a training session in which Gambhir advised him to take his bat deep and score runs, particularly in the second half of the innings.
“I think the main bit of advice that I took from GG was to take the game deep, especially here in India. You know, from the moment I got off the first training session, he sat me down, he said, I know you’re going to score runs for us, but I want you to score the majority of your runs between overs ten and 20, he said at Eden Gardens,” Salt said.
“Even if you know it can be a little bit slow to start with, I want you to hang in there and make sure you’re there from overs ten onwards and get the big overs because you can score so quickly, and I think you know of all the conversations I had, I think that’s the best bit of you know coaching I had,” he noted.
Salt is set to appear in England colors again when they face Australia in a limited-overs series at home in September.
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