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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support 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 head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.