🔗 Share this article The English Team Postpone Squad Reveal for Upcoming Twenty20 Match as Weather Force Inside Practice England's preparations for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run before their next match against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these bilateral series fulfill, what valuable insights could possibly be learned – but on this instance, for at least one of the players, that is no concern. The Batter's Changed Position: From Opener to Middle Order The cricketer says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line often repeated even by athletes who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport, in his case it is certainly accurate. After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a totally new position, coming in at five or six. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said. “They simply brought me back into the team and told, ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’” Prior to returning in June, 87% of Banton’s 162 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the rest – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game previously – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this new position he requires every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.” Mixed Results in the Tour The player noted that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have featured both outcomes. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before getting out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and finished unbeaten. Thoughts on Return and Growth The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. Since then, he drifted back out of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before returning for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was finding my way.” Backing from Coaching Staff Currently, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for the coach's ability to make him comfortable while he works out how best to grasp it. “Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Head out and play your natural game.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn't work, it’s not a disaster. 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.’” Shift in Location and Team Selection Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose sports facility where the straight boundary at a short distance is among the shortest in the sport. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their usual practice of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team for this match will be the same as the side that started both previous games. Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches Next, they travel to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a somewhat changed team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Three of those players arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Test match buildup implies he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, fast bowlers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently he will be absent for the opening game at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.