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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session before their third game against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

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

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia 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 subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.