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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity 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.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness 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 made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something 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 first two games 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 field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.