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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session before their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, 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 kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance 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.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach 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 know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the support 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 go out and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.