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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

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 regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series 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 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed 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 England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.