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England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against the Kiwis inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have already reached the pinnacle of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new role, coming in 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, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England 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 much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times 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 seen both outcomes. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. 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 first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations implies he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.