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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer 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 forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease 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 someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, 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 series at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.