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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. 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 Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase 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 a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, 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 contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.