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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” 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 the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted 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 winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered 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 two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.