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England's training sessions for a hot, dry 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 final practice run ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes 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, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role 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 lot harder 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 on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton return 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 spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered 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 couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill 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 play your natural game.’ 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 the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it 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 uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, 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 timing of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.