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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, 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 conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, England complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.