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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

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

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls 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 Return and Development

This tour has witnessed 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 sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, 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 new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.