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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the final training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose 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 no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” 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 the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped 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 given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.