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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened 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 stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head 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 gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.