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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, 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 skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice 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 is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary 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 ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.