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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 Auckland, 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 purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he faced nine balls and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result 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.