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The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line 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 top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning 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 a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines 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 happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.