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England's preparations 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 hold the final training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

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

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, 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 first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. 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 couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

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 ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.