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England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

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 peak of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role 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 lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes 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 made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” 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 me. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.