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The English side's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis inside. 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.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England plan to retain him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines 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 started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team 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 ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.