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England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the final practice run before their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.

The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman 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 building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team 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 over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to keep him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Varied Performances in New Zealand

The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.

Reflections on Comeback and Growth

The current series has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was finding my way.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’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, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

Following the first two games of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches

On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Three of those players landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will arrive later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.