It must have been an extra level of satisfaction for Tom Banton to walk off the field with an unbeaten half-century seconds after England won their third consecutive T20 series.
It was the first time he had scored 50 in an England shirt since being recalled to the team a year earlier, and this occurred after he was moved up the order. Normally, promotion to the top four is something the batsman would be pleased with, but this was basically seen as a bad omen for his chances of starting the T20 World Cup. With Ben Duckett missing the first two T20Is due to an injured thumb, it looked as if Banton would get the nod. Instead, that innings, along with the 29 he scored from 15 balls in the previous match, saw Banton firmly occupy a place in England’s World Cup middle-order, where chances rarely come.
Both innings were better than they appeared on paper. After losing two quick wickets in the powerplay, England chased down the target strongly by scoring 29 runs in the first T20I. In an England team often vulnerable against spin on sticky surfaces, Banton successfully faced Sri Lanka’s spinners in the middle overs. He hit both Dunit Velez and Wanindu Hasaranga off their lengths, hitting Velez to extra-cover and reverse-sweeping Hasaranga. That particular strength against spin was probably partly behind England’s decision to try him at four in the first place. Early last summer, playing his second T20 match in three years in Bristol, Banton showed that strength when he scored 30* off 11 balls to defeat West Indies’ Gudakesh Moti.
Batting at number 4 in Sri Lanka was an opportunity for Banton to show his full range of skills. In 2025, after being recalled to England’s white-ball squad ahead of the Champions Trophy, he batted exclusively at numbers 5 and 6 in T20Is, playing as an innings finisher. It is a role in which he has had significant success, notably his 29 off 12 balls in Christchurch last October which took England past 200. Of the England batsmen who have played at least five innings at numbers 5 and 6, none has a higher average and strike than Banton. It’s a role many would struggle to get right, but one Banton quietly aced.
Still, batting at the top of the order feels more natural. Although this does not reflect his status as an opening batsman for Somerset in both the T20 Blast and The Hundred, it does reflect the position that has brought him success in the franchise circuit. Batting mostly at three and four for MI Emirates in the ILT20 late last year, Banton scored 327 runs in 13 innings, which placed him fourth in the competition run-scoring charts.
It was in the ILT20 that Banton’s charge for an England recall in early 2025 gained momentum. He scored two quick centuries in the competition, which he completed with an average of 54.77. Soon after his stint in Dubai ended, he was called up to England’s Champions Trophy squad to replace Jacob Bethell.
That call-up added a new chapter to Banton’s career, the first time he had been selected in the England squad for three years running. An extremely talented teenager who entered international cricket just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Banton took full advantage of the franchise opportunities available at that time. The runs soon dwindled, and questions began to emerge as to whether he had the ability and adaptability to succeed at international level at that stage of his career.
“I hated cricket,” Banton said. wisden.com Last year. “I just had to do it because it was a job. When you talk to someone who has played a lot of cricket for a long time, there are moments in your career when you fall out of love with it for a while and start getting into it again.”
It didn’t help that Banton was recognized as a talented player from such an early age, while Kevin Pietersen was considered a batsman cut in a similar mould, but had played the same kind of cricket as others before coming into the limelight. “I used to log on to Twitter and read that thing [comparisons] And think, that’s just unrealistic,” Banton said. “You can’t complain if you’re being compared to those people, but I think if it were happening to anyone else now, I would want to try and help them because everyone’s been there. I went there, and it was horrible.”
The beginning of 2024 was when Banton truly left that chapter of his career behind. He rediscovered his love for the game and scored runs in both the franchise and county circuits. He returned to Somerset’s red-ball team and was their leading run-scorer in the T20 Blast that year.
Since his return to England, the results of the natural development of a batsman now in his late 20s, compared to a 20-year-old making his England debut, have been remarkable. Most of his runs in the second T20I against Sri Lanka came through the off-side, whereas earlier in his career he had relied on hitting the leg-side boundary. It is this adaptability, as well as a healthy dose of form arriving at the right time, that has enabled him to battle the likes of Duckett and Jordan Cox for the coveted spot in England’s middle order.
Coming out to bat in England’s opening match of the T20 World Cup next week has opened up a new opportunity for Banton. Finally, after a year of proving his worth and getting where he wants to be, he has a chance to justify those early comparisons. But, in more simple terms, this is an opportunity to play a central role in England’s World Cup campaign with a good chance of returning some silverware.
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