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The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have seen one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment 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 small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.