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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

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 pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “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 discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge 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. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers 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 preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.