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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final training session before their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got 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, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given 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 grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” 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 a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.