🔗 Share this article

England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last training session ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman 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 pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series 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, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring 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 come off, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result 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 2019.