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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last practice run before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, 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 type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation 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 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 weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out 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, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.