🔗 Share this article

England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the last training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to retain him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then spent a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.