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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run ahead of their third game 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 a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer 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 sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep 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 opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors 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 world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players drop out, while four others come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.