🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final training session before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this new position he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, 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 [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers landed in the city on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.