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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, 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 serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If England intend to keep him in this new position he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 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 happened in that period. I’ve learned 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 period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.