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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the final training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got 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 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.