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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last training session before their third game against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority 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 domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, 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 ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides 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, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.