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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, 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 situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to keep him in this new position he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period 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 started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years 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.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.