England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month led them on midweek to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the final training session ahead of their next match against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.
The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, coming in at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the squad and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”
Before his recall in June, 87% of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at No 4. If England plan to keep him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.”
Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he faced a few deliveries and made a low score before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out.
This tour has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he made his international debut in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness 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 made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.”
And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's skill to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so minor but for me it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the manager and I can step up and perform.’”
Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of revealing their lineup ahead of time while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.
Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed 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 the same day but the timing of the bowler's Test match buildup means he will follow two days later, flying with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.
Automotive enthusiast and expert in vehicle leasing, sharing insights on car rentals and industry trends.
