Phil Salt, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s opener, has spoken on meeting Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk during the IPL 2025. Salt, who was just in his second game with the organization at the time, said the game seemed like a Manchester derby.
In the auction of IPL 2025, RCB purchased Salt at INR 11.50 crore. The England wicketkeeper-batsman was top in 403 runs scored in 13 games and four half-centuries plus became central to the RCB winning the inaugural IPL title. One of the few players to have won two consecutive titles with different clubs is Salt who also took home the IPL 2024 championship with the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Looking back on the match in Chepauk where RCB defeated CSK in the first time they have done so since 2008, Salt said that the atmosphere was something he had never witnessed in franchise cricket.
“Going into Chennai for just my second game with RCB, I knew this wasn’t just another match. The way the guys spoke about it made it clear how big this rivalry is. For me, it felt like a Manchester derby. You could sense the build-up in training, in the media, and in conversations around the group. Once you become aware of that history and that rivalry, you realise just how big that game really is,” Phil Salt on the RCB Podcast.
Virat and I started building that connection from the moment we both arrived: Phil Salt
The opener confessed that once he was aware of the rivalry, he realized the importance of the game. Salt has stated that managing pressure begins with focusing on little, daily improvements rather than long-term goals.
“For me, it’s all about working day by day and being completely process-driven. I focus first on the small things: getting into the gym, keeping my body right, and making the right decisions physically. Then comes the cricket side of it. When I focus too much on big goals and outcomes, I lose clarity. I learned that the hard way when I was younger. Now everything for me is about small steps and daily progress, not being obsessed with results.”
Phil Salt
Furthermore, he noted that physical preparation comes first, which includes going to the gym, managing workload, and making the proper decisions before moving on to cricket-specific tasks. Salt also discussed how his partnership with Virat Kohli improved throughout the season.
“We started building that connection from the moment we both arrived here… It’s very much a conversation that happens out in the middle, and sometimes it doesn’t even need words. You can just sense how the other guy is playing. In Jaipur, for example, there wasn’t much chat at all, it was just obvious that whenever Virat got on strike, he was happy to rotate it to me. It’s 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.”
Phil Salt
