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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period 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 skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location 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 Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.