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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their next match against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If the team intend to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback 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 side, 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 weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose 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 abandoned their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.