Tom Banton Looking To Embrace 'Unnatural' No.4 Role After Recent Disappointments

Tom Banton, swashbuckling white-ball batsman, had admitted that batting at the No.4 spot does seem to feel a ‘bit unnatural’ to him at the moment but he knows he needs to add an extra dimension to his game if he has to break into the English white-ball on a consistent basis.

Banton, who stormed into the reckoning, following his exploits for Somerset in the 2019 T20 Blast, has looked far from comfortable in the past two games.

With Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow opening the batting, Tom Banton has batted in the middle-order where he has registered scores of 15 and 11. He has been dismissed both times by Curtis Campher. Unfazed by the failures, Banton feels it is about giving himself time, something he is looking to do in the third ODI.

“I’m not going to lie, it does feel unnatural at the moment. It’s about giving myself a chance because I know I can catch up. If I’m in for 40, 50 balls, I back myself to catch up,” Tom Banton was quoted as saying by The Cricketer.

“Seeing the scoreboard, I’m usually quite an aggressive player and my strike rate seems to be around 100, and then seeing that is sometimes a bit tricky. It’s probably rotating the strike more coming in and when there is a bad ball putting it away. But I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, it’s the first few times I’ve batted there so I’m not expecting too much.” he added.

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‘It’s something I’ve got to work on’- Tom Banton

Tom Banton strength lies at batting at the top of the order a role which is unlikely to get in the foreseeable future considering the number of contenders at their disposal in the form of the incumbents in Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow and fringe players like Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, and of-course Alex Hales.

And, with Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler expected to slot right back into the middle-order in future assignments, Banton knows he needs to adapt to different batting positions in order to give himself a best possible chance to become an England regular.

“I’ve never batted there [No.4] at all. I’ve always seemed to be at the top of the order. In red-ball last year I batted four, five, six, whatever, and obviously it’s different, you’ve got a lot more time, all the fielders are in,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to a few guys and they’ve told me a few things to try and take into my game. I’m getting used to it, trying to find the right tempo. A score there would probably give me a bit of confidence and that’ll feel good but I’m just waiting for that at the moment,” Banton added.

“It’s probably something I’m going to have to get used to if I’m going to. I have been trying to work on it in the nets, but the nets are pretty difficult at the moment. It’s something I’ve got to work on if I want to play more for England. I’m working quite closely with [Marcus] Trescothick which has been good – we’ve come up with a few things which hopefully I can try tomorrow.” he revealed.

England will lock horns with Ireland in the final ODI on Tuesday, which will present another opportunity to Tom Banton to showcase what he has learned from the past two failures.

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