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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener 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 peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.