England Postpone Team Reveal for Latest Twenty20 Fixture as Weather Compel Inside Training
The English side's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February led them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were compelled to conduct the final training session ahead of their third game against New Zealand inside. It is not always obvious what role these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this instance, for at least a squad member, that is no concern.
Tom Banton's Changed Position: From Opener to Lower Down
Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is certainly accurate. After building his name as a top-order batter, mostly as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and informed me, ‘Your role will be in the middle order now.’”
Prior to returning in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game previously – at fourth place. If the team intend to retain him in this altered role he requires every chance to get used to it, and he has figured out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a much tougher than opening.”
Varied Performances in New Zealand
The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the initial matches of the tour in New Zealand have featured one of each. In the opener, he faced nine balls and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played a dozen balls, hit runs, and finished not out.
Reflections on Return and Growth
The current series has seen Banton come back to the nation in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the sidelines before returning for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. I've discovered a lot about me. The few years 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
And now, he has been given something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to seize the opportunity. “The coach 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 know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it gives me the support 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 step up and do it.’”
Venue Change and Team Selection
After playing the first two games of the series at the South Island ground, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, the visitors complete it on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at 55m is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather 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 identical as the side that started the earlier fixtures.
Upcoming Changes for ODI Series
Next, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers arrived in the city on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also building towards the Tests in the away series but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.