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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their next match against the Kiwis inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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

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 undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘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 opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ 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 small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.