🔗 Share this article

The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

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 the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. 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 came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.