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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run before their next match against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation 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 five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works 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 know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.