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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last practice run ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease 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 play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

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 finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.