🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run before their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” 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 the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked 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 comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will arrive 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. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.