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The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final training session before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue.

The Batter's New Role: 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 long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed 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 other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored a low score before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Return and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's first T20 as England captain. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games 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 dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a somewhat changed squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.