Coming only hours after he was somewhat surprisingly ignored by all ten franchises at the Indian Premier League auction, it was no surprise that Phil Salt’s second T20I hundred in four days was framed as something of a riposte.
“That was probably a little bit of it, subconsciously," the opening batter himself agreed. But the day’s context ought not to overshadow that of England’s West Indies tour as a whole, which was billed from the outset as a chance for those on the fringes to stake a claim for a place in a white-ball regeneration that had to follow the recent 50-over Cricket World Cup disaster.
