🔗 Share this article The English Team Postpone Squad Announcement for Upcoming T20 Fixture as Weather Force Inside Practice England's training sessions for a warm, arid T20 World Cup in India in the coming month led them on midweek to a chilly, rainy New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to hold the last training session ahead of their third game against the Kiwis inside. It is not always obvious what purpose these two-team contests serve, what useful lessons could possibly be learned – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is not an issue. The Batter's New Role: Starting Batsman to Middle Order The cricketer 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 peak of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an opener, Banton now occupies 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 squad 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 professional T20 appearances had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at No3 and the rest – but for seven balls at No 7 in a domestic T20 game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs every chance to become accustomed to it, and he has figured out one thing: “Playing down the order,” he concluded, “is a lot harder than starting the innings.” Mixed Results in New Zealand Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it appears brilliant and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in the host nation have featured one of each. In the first, he faced nine balls and scored a low score before getting out to long-on; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, hit runs, and finished not out. Reflections on Comeback and Development This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he first played for his country in November 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in recently and then spent a long period in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain. “During the journey, it was strange,” he said. “It was six years ago when I made my debut. Seems a lot has happened in that period. I've discovered a lot about me. The period after I got dropped from the national team was a difficult phase for me. I had a two- to three-year stretch where I was working myself out.” Backing from Team Management And now, he has been assigned 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 figures out how best to grasp it. “Baz approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that freedom,” Banton said. “I realize it’s just a brief comment someone says, 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 go out and perform.’” Venue Change and Squad Decisions After playing the initial matches of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with unusually long boundaries, the visitors finish the series on Thursday at the Auckland arena, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the field edge at a short distance is among the shortest in the world. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of revealing their team two days in advance while they determine if their ideal XI here will be the same as the side that began the earlier fixtures. Upcoming Changes for ODI Series Next, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to one-day internationals, with a slightly amended team: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in. Most newcomers landed in the city on the same day but the timing of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will arrive later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at Bay Oval, the stadium where he was subjected to abuse on his only previous appearance, in a few years back.