🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand 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 a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “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 June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to get used 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 New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches 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 next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go 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 gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location 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 the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.