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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last practice run before their third game against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman 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 peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got 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 No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, 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. Three of those players landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.