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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. 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 a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players 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, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, 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 head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it 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 changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers 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 the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.