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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head 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 provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, 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.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.