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The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really 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 the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections 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, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, 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 learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” 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 the end of the world. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England 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 new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.