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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the final practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, 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 Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer 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 case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really 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 the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this new position he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times 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 featured one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton come back 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 spent a long period in the wilderness 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. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase 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 given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he figures 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 freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.