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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final training session before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 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 me. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive 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 miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.