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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: 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 players who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have 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.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped 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 Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the support 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.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.