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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose 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 not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 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 T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to the coastal town 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. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.