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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the last training session before their next match against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights 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 Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team plan to keep him in this new position he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced nine balls and made nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished not out.

Reflections on Comeback and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, England finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use 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 announcing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches

Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.