Rajat Patidar<\/a> addressed Salt\u2019s availability during their pre-match media duties. The silence appears strategic. Flower, in particular, has developed a reputation for employing tactical smokescreens.<\/p>\nHe has often had even his injured players go through warm-ups before games, deliberately keeping the opposition second-guessing the actual XI.<\/p>\n
Salt wasn\u2019t the only absentee from RCB\u2019s training session, with a few other squad members also opting to rest. But among all, Salt\u2019s absence stands out. His opening partnership with Virat Kohli has laid the foundation for many of RCB\u2019s big totals this season. Losing him now could force the Bengaluru franchise into a last-minute reshuffle.<\/p>\n
Alternative options<\/p>\n
With Jacob Bethell already unavailable due to international duty, RCB\u2019s options for a replacement opener are limited. Tim Seifert, signed earlier as a replacement, remains a possibility, as does Mayank Agarwal. Both are likely candidates to partner Kohli at the top, should Salt be confirmed unavailable.<\/p>\n
While the franchise has not officially announced its decision, the uncertainty around Salt’s status looms large ahead of what is already a high-pressure night for RCB. The franchise, still chasing its first IPL title, now faces the additional challenge of possibly filling a key void in its XI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just as Royal Challengers Bengaluru prepare for the biggest night in their IPL history, a major curveball has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,4127,11095,58749,65672,65671,65673,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-154401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-ipl-2025","10":"tag-ipl-2025-news","11":"tag-phil-salt","12":"tag-phil-salt-ipl-2025","13":"tag-phil-salt-rcb","14":"tag-rcb-vs-pbks","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Royal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/CRICKET-IND-IPL-T20-PUNJAB-BENGALURU-56_1748933025604_1748933029434.jpg\" "\\"Royal")
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Phil Salt plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 first Qualifier cricket match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium(AFP) <\/p>\n