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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case 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 role, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel 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 Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.