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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run before their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation 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 passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.