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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last practice run before their third game against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great 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 first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned 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 grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, England complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently he will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.