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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run before their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off 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 first, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides 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 backing from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the one that began 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 somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.