🔗 Share this article

England's training sessions for a warm, arid 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 training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

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 first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given something new 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 works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support 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 head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.