🔗 Share this article

The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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

Tom Banton 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 certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time 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 grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while four others join the squad. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.