England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.
The cricketer says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”
Prior to returning in June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If the team intend to keep him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”
Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries 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 not out.
The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The few years after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”
And now, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach 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 from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and do it.’”
After playing the initial matches of the contest at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, a multi-use sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that started both previous games.
Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.
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