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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run ahead of their third game against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what role 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: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances 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 previously – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings 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. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the wilderness 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 made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. 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.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful 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. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring 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 work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions 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 same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, 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 means he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.