🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

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 featured one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice 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 a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup 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.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.