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The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

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

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team 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, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder 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 doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. 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 two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know 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 minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, 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 straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.