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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.