The English Team Postpone Squad Reveal for Latest Twenty20 Fixture as Conditions Force Inside Practice
England's preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last training session before their next match against New Zealand inside. The purpose isn't always clear what role these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.
Tom Banton's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down
Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the type of statement regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his situation it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new role, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘You’re going to bat in the lower batting lineup now.’”
Before his recall in the summer, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”
Mixed Results in New Zealand
The player noted that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have featured both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.
Thoughts on Comeback and Development
This tour 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 side, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent a long period in the sidelines before coming back 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 me. The few years 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
And now, he has been given something new to tackle. Banton is grateful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Go out and play your natural game.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It is so minor 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 Squad Decisions
After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with expansive playing area, the visitors complete it on the next day at the Auckland arena, 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 unfamiliar venue they have dropped their recent habit of revealing their team ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI for this match will be the identical as the one that began both previous games.
Squad Adjustments for One-Day Matches
On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a somewhat changed team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players landed in the city on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will follow later, flying with two fellow bowlers, 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 the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.
