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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to hold the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

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 game, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time 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 assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach'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, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

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 the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.