Salt backs England to bring their 'best version' for Scotland clash

Phil Salt has said that England will attempt to channel their defeat against West Indies and ensure they bring the "best version" of themselves to Saturday's crunch Group C clash with Scotland in Kolkata on Saturday.

England went down by 30 runs against West Indies at the Wankhede on Wednesday, leaving them no margin of error for the rest of the group stage. Scotland, meanwhile, will come into the match with hopes bolstered of causing an upset, having swept past Italy (who thrashed Nepal, who ran England close) to bounce back from their own loss to West Indies.

In both of their T20 World Cup triumphs, in 2010 and 2022, England recovered from a faltering start to go on and lift the trophy. Salt, who played in the semi-final and final four years ago, said that the team backed themselves to come good when it mattered, with victories over Scotland and Italy needed to be certain of their progression to the Super Eights.

"I think that's the mark of all good teams, and all good athletes in general, in professional sport," Salt said. "I think when your back is against the wall, to come out and bring that best version of yourself... Obviously we did that in 2022 and we'll look to do that again here.

"I've said it a couple times now, but it's really, really simple what we need to do. We need to remove the outcome from everything. We need to remove the outcome, focus on the processes of what we're doing and bring the best version of ourselves."

England also have the memory of a close encounter with Scotland to spur them on. In Barbados, at the 2024 T20 World Cup, Scotland raced off to 90 without loss from 10 overs in a game that ended as a washout. That remains the teams' only previous meeting in T20Is, and Salt said England would not underestimate them.

"I'm very familiar with all of them," Salt said of Scotland's players. "I've watched a lot of their cricket and played against them a few times - not necessarily just when it's been England against Scotland, but in different franchise leagues. They're a good side. They've got a good attack. I think they've got quite a lot of games under their belts as a collective as well. They've been in this position before, and I think they will put up a good fight."

Asked about Harry Brook's assessment that England had been too "careful" in their approach to chasing 197 against West Indies, Salt said that the batters would have to "let ourselves go, trust in ourselves" in order to improve their chances.

"There are a lot of different aspects to it [analysis], coaches going around players individually, saying what they like and didn't like, but that's not exclusively for after a defeat. That's part of the daily process of getting better as a team. That's probably the part that you don't see. But I think the overriding theme was exactly that: a little bit too careful, a little bit too tentative. We know we've got to let ourselves go, trust in ourselves, [for] the rest of the competition."

Salt scored 30 off 14 balls to give England a flying start on Wednesady before being caught in the ring off Romario Shepherd, but said that he would back the same plan to "keep throwing the pressure back on" the bowlers.

He did add, however, that being adaptable was an important part of his development as a T20 batter, and referred back to his experience playing for Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens during the 2024 IPL.

"When I was here, GG [Gautam Gambhir] was quite big on me giving myself a few balls. That didn't necessarily mean stand there and block the first six, but it meant be really, really smart. It was actually a big part of me getting better as a player, big part of my improvement.

"Where are my high-percentage shots? Where did they bowl? Where did they miss? Knowing that, going into the game confident that I've seen all the data, seen all the footage, that I've got a good idea of what's coming at me - they might bowl something completely different, but I've played the percentages with my prep, and then I can go out in the middle.

"I'll train with that in mind, with where they missed, what they go to as defensive options. So I'll tick that box as well. Then I'll go out there and do the exact same thing again, almost try and repeat it, try and take the conscious thought away from it as best I can."