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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, 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 squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go 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 provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series 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 new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.