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The English side's preparations 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 hold the last training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights 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: From Opener to Lower Down

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 pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts 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 side, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. 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. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, 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 perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team two days in advance while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: three players drop out, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.