England Postpone Squad Reveal for Latest T20 Fixture as Conditions Force Inside Practice

England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the final training session before their next match against the Kiwis indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

Tom Banton's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order

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 peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new role, 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, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.”

Mixed Results in the Tour

The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it looks great and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the first, he lasted nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Reflections on Return and Development

This tour has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in recently and then passed a long period in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was finding my way.”

Support from Coaching Staff

Currently, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach 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 only a small thing 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 backing from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started both previous games.

Squad Adjustments for ODI Series

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while four others join the squad. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.