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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

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 often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following 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 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team 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 Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.