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England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last practice run before their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

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 situation it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and made nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Venue Change and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the same as the side that began both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result he will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.