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The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

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

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s over 160 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder 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 appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the first, he faced nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished not out.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’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 occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful 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 [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 only a small thing someone says, but it gives me 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 backing from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the one that started the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.