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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed 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 “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times 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 scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” 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 myself. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, 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 first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.