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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final practice run before their next match against New Zealand indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies 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 told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's initial match 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 happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go 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 provides the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers 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 miss the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.