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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the final practice run ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: From Opener 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 sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain 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.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished not out.

Thoughts 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, had a short comeback in recently and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful 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 grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the initial matches of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while four others come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will arrive two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. Consequently Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.