New Delhi [India], May 20 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opening batter Phil Salt is set to return to India later this week after being sidelined for a month from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season with a finger injury, as per ESPNcricinfo.

Phil Salt injured a finger on his left hand while attempting to stop a boundary during his team's loss to the Delhi Capitals on April 18. He has not played since and returned home last month.

In his absence, defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru have already secured a playoff berth and are on course to qualify for Qualifier 1 in Dharamsala next Tuesday, unless there is a major swing in the Net Run Rate of teams in the IPL 2026 points table.

It is still unclear whether Salt will return for RCB's final league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Friday.

RCB currently lead the IPL 2026 standings with nine wins and four losses in 13 matches, having accumulated 18 points.

Salt played six matches in the IPL 2026 before the injury sidelined him. In those six innings, he scored two fifties and a 46.

In their most recent IPL 2026 match, RCB defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 23 runs at Dharamsala. Batting first, RCB posted a massive 222/4 thanks to brilliant knocks from Virat Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer.

Kohli scored 58 to register his record-extending ninth 500-plus runs IPL season, while Venkatesh remained unbeaten on 73 off 40 balls. Devdutt Padikkal (45) and Tim David (28) also made valuable contributions.

In reply, PBKS suffered an early collapse as Bhuvneshwar (2/38 in 4 overs) removed Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh cheaply, while skipper Shreyas Iyer also fell early. Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh and Suryansh Shedge fought back with aggressive batting, but RCB bowlers held their nerve in the death overs.

Josh Hazlewood's (1/36 in 4 overs) economical penultimate over proved decisive before Rasikh Salam Dar sealed the win in the final over with two wickets (Shashank Singh and Azmatullah Omarzai), giving away just nine runs. (ANI)