{"id":40442,"date":"2026-02-15T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=40442"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:00:03","slug":"banton-at-home-in-first-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=40442","title":{"rendered":"Banton at home in first World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tom Banton, who carried England to victory in the T20 World Cup against Scotland on Saturday in Kolkata, finally came of age as an international batsman after a stop-start career.<\/p>\n

His place had been under threat from Ben Duckett after he scored only two against both Nepal and the West Indies in his first World Cup.<\/p>\n

But coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum and captain Harry Brook stuck with Banton, usually an opener, after encouraging him to become an innings “finisher” by dropping down two places.<\/p>\n

They were rewarded in a tense clash with his match-winning 63 not out at Eden Gardens, Banton’s most accomplished knock in an England shirt.<\/p>\n

Banton strode to the middle in the must-win clash with England wobbling at 13-2, chasing 153, and was still there at the end.<\/p>\n

“I think coming off the back of two low scores, I just wanted to put my hand up and try and get the boys over the line,” Banton told reporters.<\/p>\n

Banton admitted he had nerves at the start of his innings after his previous low scores.<\/p>\n

“This is my first World Cup and the pressure is definitely different. I’ll be the first one to admit that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think as any human would do, there’s obviously those doubts. But I think Baz and Brookie, the coaches and everyone in the team backs everyone.<\/p>\n

“It’s T20 cricket. People are going to go up and down. That’s just how cricket is sometimes.<\/p>\n

“And you’ve just got to keep back yourself, keep training hard, keep working hard on your game.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Best feeling on the planet’<\/p>\n

Banton made his T20 international debut in 2019 as an explosive 21-year-old opener, with a reputation as a reverse sweeper and comparisons being made to Kevin Pieterse.<\/p>\n

But he was soon worked out by top-class bowlers and the runs dried up.<\/p>\n

He was dropped in 2022 and was, by his own admission, “hating cricket” as he returned to his county Somerset.<\/p>\n

He got his head down, worked hard at his game and by 2023 was starring in a winning domestic T20 Blast campaign.<\/p>\n

Last year he earned an England recall after three years out.<\/p>\n

And on Saturday, he was a completely different player to his gung-ho younger self.<\/p>\n

He posted composed stands of 66 with Jacob Bethell and 46 alongside Sam Curran to see England home with 10 balls to spare.<\/p>\n

The innings showed a mature Banton in a new light.<\/p>\n

The reckless reverse sweeps, scoops and flicks were cast aside, instead he was measured and more orthodox, on a pitch and against an attack that deserved repect.<\/p>\n

When the time came to accelerate Banton seized the moment.<\/p>\n

Three massive sixes in one over from Mark Watt that leaked 22 runs took the game away from Scotland.<\/p>\n

“It was awesome. I’m good mates with Bants, so it was good to see him have success on the field,” said England captain Brook.<\/p>\n

“He said to me he didn’t want to give them a sniff.<\/p>\n

“He’s obviously matured as a player, the way that he chased that total down almost single-handedly, he played it beautifully.”<\/p>\n

England still need to beat Italy at Eden Garden on Monday to guarantee their place in the Super Eights.<\/p>\n

Italy are the lowest ranked team in the tournament, but Banton said that counts for nothing.<\/p>\n

“You can’t take anyone for granted. It quickly bites you in the arse if you think like that,” he said, clearly happy and enjoying his cricket again.<\/p>\n

“Growing up, playing for England is the goal and a dream, and to be at a World Cup with a lot of good friends, I can’t complain,” said Banton.<\/p>\n

“It’s literally the best feeling on the planet.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Banton, who carried England to victory in the T20 World Cup against Scotland on Saturday in Kolkata, finally came of age as an international batsman after a stop-start career. His place had been under threat from Ben Duckett after he scored only two against both Nepal and the West Indies in his first World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}