The most complete player – Phil Salt heaps praise on Virat Kohli

Playing with Virat Kohli is a dream for any cricketer, and Phil Salt has lived it for two seasons, when opening the batting for RCB.

However, behind the dream, is there a method in place and what does that feel like?

Talking on The Super Over Podcast, Salt opened up on his perspective of batting alongside Virat Kohli and the conversation that the two share in the center.

Lauding Virat, Salt said, “I think he's easily the most complete player that I've ever played with or watched on TV or anything. I don't think there's anything he can't do. Just from that point of view to play in the same team, as who is in my opinion, the most complete player in world cricket, you know that's obviously incredible to have that in an IPL team.”

Picking the point that defines Virat, Salt said, “The clarity is one that stands out. He’s not shy of running down the wicket to me and telling me this is the time, kill him, this is the over. Finish it now. All this sort of a thing.”

Highlighting an instance, Salt added, “I think it was like the third over of batting with him ever in this year's IPL at Eden Gardens. And I think maybe the first two overs would have gone for like 15 or something like that. We weren't on many. And we were talking in between the second and the third over and he just said, "Kill him." That's all he said. Kill him. Make this a big over. It's not like we'd hit many boundaries or got off like a shot. But he just knew that it that at that point in time this was my matchup.”

Salt further stated, “I knew it was my matchup as well. Was it the time to hit an over for 20 plus? I don't know. Like I didn't know. But he knew and he gave me that clarity and he told me to do it. And that's huge. You see it in so many different sports where your knowledge of your teammates is huge like in football. So you know when guys play together for a while like I don't know I'm just the average punter but you know when (Kevin) De Bruyne was playing with (Erling) Haaland it's almost like he knew exactly where Haaland would be. All that sort of thing.”

Salt concluded by stating, “You see it in different sports that people build those relationships but you don't actually see it a lot in cricket. I don't know necessarily why that is, but you don't see it a lot. So to have someone batting with you who know who can read the game on your behalf sometimes, it's massive.”