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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, 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, batting at five or six. “I didn't have 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 the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he needs 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.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour 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 played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback 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 weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.