England Postpone Squad Announcement for Latest Twenty20 Fixture as Weather Compel Indoor Training
England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India 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 the Kiwis indoors. It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is no concern.
The Batter's Changed Position: Starting Batsman to Lower Down
Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out 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 starting player, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar position, batting at five or six. “I didn't have too many discussions,” he said. “I just got brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”
Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s 162 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than opening.”
Varied Performances in New Zealand
Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and on other occasions where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, scored 29, and finished not out.
Thoughts on Comeback and Growth
The current series has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, had a short comeback in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s first T20 as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about myself. The period 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.”
Support from Coaching Staff
Currently, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to make him comfortable while he figures out how best to seize the opportunity. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the support that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the head coach and I can step up and perform.’”
Venue Change and Team Selection
Following the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a venue with expansive playing area, England complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use sports facility where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With changeable conditions and an new location they have dropped their usual practice of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the one that started the earlier fixtures.
Squad Adjustments for ODI Series
On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Test match buildup implies he will follow later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also preparing for the Tests in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently he will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance, in 2019.