🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

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

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, 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 No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted 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 the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.