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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the last training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful 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 seize the opportunity. “Baz approached 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 only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something 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 Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.