Phil Salt

Phil Salt's fearless ball-striking at the top of the Sussex order earned him attention from across the global T20 circuit and a maiden England call-up in 2019, though he was made to wait until 2021 for his debut when he performed a passable impression of Jason Roy in the Covid-hit ODI series against Pakistan.

Born in Wales but raised in Barbados, Salt's interests quickly switched from football to cricket. He had watched Manchester City home and away growing up, but the move to the Caribbean inspired a desire to play cricket, and play it aggressively. He won a scholarship to play cricket at Reed School in Surrey, from where he was recommended to Keith Medlycott and joined their academy. He made a first-team debut in August 2015, but it wasn't until 2018 that he really broke through.

Salt smashed two Championship hundreds from the top of the order - including 148 off 138 balls against Derbyshire - and a strike-rate of 172 in the Blast helped Sussex to the Blast final, which they might well have won but for his calamitous run out in the second over. He was talent-spotted by Lahore Qalandars, who invited him to play in the Abu Dhabi T20 trophy - a Champions League-lite - but Islamabad United swooped to sign him in the PSL draft instead.

2019 brought two more Championship hundreds, but again it was against the white ball that he impressed the most, smashing a ton in the One-Day Cup and finishing the Blast as Sussex's leading run-scorer. He answered a phone call from the Barbados Tridents from a Miami beach in October, and was soon flying into Trinidad to play in the CPL final - he made a duck, but lifted the trophy regardless. He also became a regular member of Adelaide Strikers' BBL squad, playing under his Sussex coach Jason Gillespie.

The following summer might well have brought him an England debut after he smashed a 58-ball hundred against Ireland in a warm-up game at the Ageas Bowl but they stuck with their tried-and-tested openers and he returned to Sussex for the rest of the season. A winter away with Adelaide and Islamabad brought him limited success as teams worked out his vulnerability against legspin and when he returned to the UK, a freak cycling accident ruled him out of the early rounds of the Championship season. 2021 came to an end without him playing a single red-ball game and coincided with a move that felt like a homecoming: after spending midsummer playing for Manchester Originals in the Hundred, he signed a three-year deal with Lancashire as a replacement for Alex Davies.

ESPNcricinfo staff