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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “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 myself. The few years after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.