🔗 Share this article England Postpone Squad Announcement for Latest T20 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 New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to conduct the last practice run before their next match against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what role these two-team contests serve, what valuable insights 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 “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have already reached the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at the middle order. “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.’” Before his recall in the summer, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an opener, another 8% at No3 and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at seventh spot in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If the team intend to keep him in this new position he requires every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a much tougher than starting the innings.” Mixed Results in the Tour Banton said that “sometimes where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen one of each. In the first, he faced a few deliveries and scored nine runs before holing out to the deep fielder; in the next game, he faced a dozen balls, hit runs, and ended the innings not out. Reflections on Return and Development The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he first played for his country in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed more than three years in the wilderness before returning for the new captain's first T20 as skipper. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “Time has passed when I made my debut. It feels like a lot has happened in that period. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a couple of years period where I was working myself out.” Support from Team Management And now, he has been assigned a fresh challenge to work out. Banton is thankful to have been offered a return, and also for Brendon McCullum’s skill to put him at ease while he figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [Monday’s second T20] and said, ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I know it’s only a small thing from the staff, but it gives me the support 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 go out and perform.’” Venue Change and Team Selection Following the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, England finish the series on the next day at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose sports facility where the field edge at a short distance is among the most compact in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have dropped their recent habit of announcing their lineup two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI for this match will be the same as the side that started the earlier fixtures. Upcoming Changes for One-Day Matches On Friday, they move to Mount Maunganui and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended team: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers landed in Auckland on Wednesday but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations implies he will arrive later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, fast bowlers who are also preparing for the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result he will miss the first match at the venue, the ground where he was subjected to abuse on his sole prior visit, in 2019.