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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened 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 two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose 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 abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, 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 landed in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.