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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 chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. 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 grasp it. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.