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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will follow 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 white-ball squad. As a result Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.