Phil Salt in tune with Matthew Mott’s England expectations after maiden hundred

Phil Salt believes he has a key ally in new England white-ball head coach Matthew Mott following a maiden international hundred.

The pyrotechnics of Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone that carried England to a world record 498 for four in the first one-day international against the Netherlands on Friday will live long in the memory, but it was Salt, in particular, who laid the foundations for an enormous total in Amstelveen.

He might have gone into his shell after the early dismissal of Jason Roy but instead elected to meet the minnows head-on with a series of eye-catching drives and a couple of self-assured pulls for six.

In just his fourth ODI, having been given the chance by Jonny Bairstow’s unavailability because of his Test commitments, the end result was a sparkling 122 from 93 balls in a 222-run partnership with Dawid Malan which changed the complexion of the series opener as England won by 232 runs.

Having been in and around the England white-ball set-up for the last three years, Salt is well aware of Eoin Morgan’s attack-minded philosophy and suspects Mott is singing from the same hymn sheet.

“He certainly likes the way that I play,” Salt said of the Australian coach. “I don’t think anything is too dissimilar from the brand of cricket that we’re going to play.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory what you need to do if you want to play for England. If you want to play for Morgs, you have to play a certain type of way and he’s very clear with that.

“It’s as simple as knowing that when I get the opportunity, I’ve got to perform and I’ve got to do well. That’s how it’s going to work if you want to have a long England career.”

Every time you put on an England shirt is an honour, I want to keep doing that. If I can keep doing