🔗 Share this article The English Team Delay Team Reveal for Upcoming Twenty20 Match as Weather Compel Indoor Training England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in the coming month brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were forced to conduct the last training session before their third game against New Zealand indoors. The purpose isn't always clear what purpose these two-team contests fulfill, what useful lessons could possibly be gained – but on this occasion, for at least a squad member, that is no concern. Tom Banton'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 players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their game, in his case it is undeniably true. After forging his reputation as a frontline hitter, mostly as an starting player, Banton now occupies a totally new position, batting at five or six. “There weren’t really too many discussions,” he said. “I just got 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 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, a further portion at third position and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at seventh spot in a T20 Blast game previously – at No 4. If the team plan to retain him in this altered role he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out a key point: “Playing down the order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.” Mixed Results in the Tour The player noted that “sometimes where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the first two games of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted nine balls and made a low score before holing out to the deep fielder; in the second, he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings not out. Reflections on Return and Development The current series has witnessed Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. Since then, he moved away of the team, made a brief return in 2022 and then passed a long period in the wilderness before coming back for the new captain's initial match as skipper. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “Time has passed when I started internationally. Seems a lot has occurred in that time. 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 working myself out.” Backing 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 skill to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it. “The coach approached me before [the recent game] and said, ‘Head out and express yourself.’ It's reassuring to have that liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment from the staff, but it provides the support that if it doesn't work, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can step up and do it.’” Shift in Location and Team Selection After playing the initial matches of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a venue with expansive playing area, 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 shortest in the sport. With uncertain weather and an new location they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their preferred team here will be the identical as the one that started both previous games. Upcoming Changes for ODI Series On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and turn focus to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players are omitted, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith join the squad. Most newcomers arrived in Auckland on the same day but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow later, travelling with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the longer format in Australia but are excluded from the white-ball squad. As a result Archer will miss the first match at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in a few years back.