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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated 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 now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Development

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 team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, 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 grasp it. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge 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 ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. 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, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result he will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.