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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last training session before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily 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 squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this new position he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’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 reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing 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, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.