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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability 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 nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.