🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach 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 venue with expansive playing area, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.