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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, 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 certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he faced nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I was left out 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 given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable 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 reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.