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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

The current series has seen Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened 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 working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment 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 approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while four others join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result he will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.