🔗 Share this article

The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

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 New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, 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 late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, 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 make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached 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 only a small thing someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out 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, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m 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 determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the timing of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will arrive two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he 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.