England Postpone Squad Announcement for Upcoming Twenty20 Fixture as Conditions Compel Indoor Training
England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on midweek to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to hold the final training session ahead of their next match against the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series serve, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.
Tom Banton's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order
Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his situation it is certainly accurate. 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 conversations,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”
Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% 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 England intend to keep him in this new position he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the 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 fails”, and the first two games of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he played 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished unbeaten.
Thoughts on Comeback and Growth
The current series has seen Banton return to the nation in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period 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 happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about me. The period after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years stretch where I was working myself out.”
Backing from Team Management
Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can go out and perform.’”
Venue Change and Team Selection
Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, England finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the one that started both previous games.
Upcoming Changes for ODI Series
On Friday, they move to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while four others come in. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. As a result Archer will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.