England Postpone Team Reveal for Upcoming T20 Match as Conditions Force Indoor Training

The English side's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last training session before their third game against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, 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 regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself 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 told, ‘Your role will be in the lower batting lineup now.’”

Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team intend to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than opening.”

Mixed Results in New Zealand

The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he lasted a few deliveries and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and ended the innings unbeaten.

Thoughts on Comeback and Growth

This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. After that, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in recently and then spent a long period in the sidelines before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out.”

Backing from Team Management

Currently, he has been assigned something new to tackle. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease 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 nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it provides the backing 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 approval from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”

Shift in Location and Team Selection

After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on the next day at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup two days in advance while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.

Upcoming Changes for ODI Series

Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Three of those players landed in the city on Wednesday but the timing 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 Tests in the away series but are excluded from the limited-overs team. As a result he will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.