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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” 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 the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour 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 side, made a brief return in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. 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 the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing 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 go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.