🔗 Share this article

England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run before their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to keep him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “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 looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support 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 approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.