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The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances 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 doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new 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. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring 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, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.