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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer 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 pinnacle of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.