As
Salisbury returns to where it all began at Sussex, he talks about love, loss, leg breaks and his own remarkable journey
By Phil Walker for Wisden
Cricket Monthly
At around the midway point of a conversation that has ranged across the plains of love, loss, tragedy and belonging, Ian Salisbury finds his flow suddenly suspended by a wisp of magic from Adil Rashid. The leg-spinner is bowling achingly slowly for
England on TV, and his brilliance has stopped Salisbury in his tracks. “What a bowler, by the way, Adil. Probably the world’s best at what he does.” There’s a pause, so as to watch the replay. “So good.” Another pause, the voice falling onto the black keys. “What a shame he’s only playing T20 and one-day cricket, rather than Test matches. But he will have his reasons. I love Rash.”
What follows is a mini-seminar on white-ball spin versus red-ball. “The big misconception,” he concludes, “is that if you’re bowling spin well in white-ball, you can’t bowl well in red-ball. If I ever felt out of nick in red-ball cricket, I used to find that the one-day stuff used to get me back in nick. Four-day cricket is pressure. You’ve got a slip in, men around the bat, you’re expected to take wickets but not go for runs. But in one-day cricket you can put the field out and go through all your variations, re-find your rhythm, and then take it back to four-day cricket.”