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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, 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 kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “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 looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” 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 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 go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team 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 One-Day Matches

Next, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.