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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series 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 Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar 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 told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered 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 couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing 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.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.