White-ball captain Buttler has kept in 106 of his past 108 T20 internationals, fielding only in the two matches that took place in Trinidad during England’s previous tour of the Caribbean in December 2023.
“It’s not something I’ve done a lot for England recently,” Salt said in Barbados ahead of the third ODI. “But I enjoy keeping. I feel like that’s where I offer most to the side.”
Salt has kept in 13 of his 59 games for England across formats and has been given the gloves in this current ODI series ahead of Jordan Cox, who will fill in for Test keeper Jamie Smith for the upcoming series in New Zealand.
At the time, Buttler said: “I was going to give up the gloves and commit to being at mid-off and see how that felt. If it will help me with my captaincy it is something I am open to.”
Of whether his move to keep is a long-term decision, Salt said: “We’ve not had that chat about anything going forward. I’m just glad to be doing it at the moment.”
Salt made scores of 18 and 59 in the first two ODIs, with his half-century helping to set up England’s chase of 329 to tie the series in the second Antigua game.
“When anybody’s at their best they’re aggressive and smart,” he said. “They go hand in hand – they have to if you’re going to have any success in white-ball cricket.
“I know I could have got more runs. I think for myself it’s how do I drop the strike rate and pump the average… prolonging my innings and extending partnerships. Those are two of the most important things in 50-over cricket.”
The ODI series against Australia in September was Salt’s first experience of 50-over cricket since the tour of the Caribbean in December last year. With the Hundred being played at the same time as the One-Day Cup during the English summer, many of England’s new white-ball generation have little List A experience, with Salt explaining the difficulty of re-adapting to the tempo required.
“I don’t think there’s many players in this team that you could go through and go ‘oh they’re doing a great job right now’. That’s the reality of it because we’ve not played a lot of 50-over cricket.
“I’d love something like a domestic 50-over competition. I’d love the opportunity to play in that so you can get the rhythm and it’s not always stop-start. But that’s what we’ve got. As a player you’ve got to adapt.”
