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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year 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 Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] 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 support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.