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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final practice run ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their game, in his situation it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”

Varied Performances in the Tour

Banton said that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return 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. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Support from Team Management

Currently, he has been given a fresh challenge to work out. 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 seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor 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 Squad Decisions

Following the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the side that began both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.