The English Team Postpone Team Announcement for Upcoming T20 Match as Conditions Force Indoor Training

The English side's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the final practice run before their third game against New Zealand indoors. 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 one of the players, that is no concern.

The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down

The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”

Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to keep 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 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 doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out.

Thoughts on Return and Development

The current series 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, had a short comeback in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Coaching Staff

And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz 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 only a small thing 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 go out and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Squad Decisions

After playing the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on Thursday at Eden Park, a multi-use 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 dropped their recent habit of announcing their team ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in 2019.