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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run before their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights 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 Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” 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 me. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the side that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, 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 Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.