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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose 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 Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity 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 New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and made a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach 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 only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.