England Delay Squad Announcement for Latest Twenty20 Match as Conditions Force Indoor Training
England's training sessions for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in the subcontinent in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly New Zealand's largest city, where they were compelled to hold the last practice run ahead of their next match against New Zealand indoors. 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 one of the players, that is not an issue.
The Batter's New Role: From Opener to Middle Order
Tom Banton says he is “continuing to develop”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by athletes who have long since scaled the peak of their sport, in his case it is undeniably true. After building his name as a top-order batter, primarily as an starting player, Banton suddenly finds himself a completely unfamiliar position, batting at the middle order. “There weren’t really too many conversations,” 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 June, the vast majority of Banton’s over 160 senior T20 innings had been as an starting batsman, another 8% at third position and the remaining handful – but for a brief stint at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at fourth place. If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs 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.”
Varied Performances in the Tour
Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it works well and it looks great and on other occasions where it fails”, and the initial matches of the tour in the host nation have seen both outcomes. In the opener, he lasted a few deliveries and made a low score before holing out to long-on; in the next game, he played 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.
Reflections on Comeback and Growth
The current series has witnessed Banton come back to the country in which he made his international debut in late 2019. After that, he drifted back out of the side, had a short comeback in recently and then spent a long period in the sidelines before coming back for Harry Brook’s initial match as England captain. “On the flight over, it was weird,” he said. “It was six years ago when I started internationally. It feels like a lot has happened in that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The few years after I was left out from England was a tough time for me. I had a couple of years period where I was finding my way.”
Backing from Team Management
And now, he has been assigned something new to work out. Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for the coach'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 liberty,” Banton said. “I know it’s just a brief comment someone says, but it provides the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not a disaster. It is so small but for me it’s, ‘Alright, I’ve got the approval from the manager and I can go out and do it.’”
Venue Change and Squad Decisions
After playing the first two games of the contest at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a stadium with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on the next day at Eden Park, a multi-use rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the most compact in the world. With changeable conditions and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their lineup ahead of time while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the identical as the side that began the earlier fixtures.
Upcoming Changes for ODI Series
On Friday, they travel to the coastal town and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: three players drop out, while four others join the squad. Three of those players arrived in the city on Wednesday but the scheduling of the bowler's Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, flying with two fellow bowlers, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are not in the limited-overs team. Consequently Archer will be absent for the first match at the venue, the ground where he was racially abused on his sole prior visit, in 2019.