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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last practice run before their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, 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 told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’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 period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out 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 offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.