🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to hold the last practice run before their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he requires every chance 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

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.