Tom Banton will open alongside Ben Duckett when England face Sri Lanka in the first ODI at the Riverside Ground on September 22. He becomes the sixth man to partner Duckett at the top in England’s last 17 ODIs.
Banton, 27, has played seven ODIs for 172 runs at 28.66 with a best of 58. He has never opened in the format. But his captain sees no issue with that.
“He’s good on the short ball, and arguably he’s one of our best players of spin. When you first come into international cricket, a lot of people say you need to be able to play the short ball and be a good player of spin, and he fits that mould really well.”
Harry Brook, pre-match press conference, September 2026
Tom Banton will become the sixth man to open the batting with Ben Duckett in England’s last 17 ODIs 👀
▶️ https://t.co/JjWYiMOJZ8 pic.twitter.com/oRG8ezRrhA
— Cricinfo (@cricinfo) September 21, 2026
Brook went further, pointing to Banton’s domestic record as evidence the role suits him. “He’s opened pretty much his whole career in white-ball cricket, so I can’t see this being any different for him.” Banton has been Somerset’s first-choice white-ball opener since 2018 and signed a white-ball only contract extension with the county through 2028.
The confidence is not baseless. Banton carries a career T20 strike rate of 156.3 against spin. His switch hits and reverse sweeps have been a consistent weapon across franchise leagues and county cricket. Brook’s endorsement is specific, not generic. He is naming the two skills that matter most in the first ten overs of an ODI.
The position Banton walks into has been anything but stable. Since the start of 2025, Duckett has opened with Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Zak Crawley, Rehan Ahmed, Jacob Bethell, and now Banton. Six names in 17 matches.
Salt was the first choice after the Champions Trophy. Smith came next. Crawley got one match against Sri Lanka in January before a knee injury ended his series after scoring 6. England responded by promoting Rehan Ahmed, a leg-spinning allrounder with an ODI batting average of 12.40, to open the second ODI as a “nighthawk” experiment. Bethell arrived for the India series in July 2026 and looked the most convincing of the lot, scoring 91 at Lord’s. Then his right knee gave way.
Bethell underwent successful surgery on September 4. He missed The Hundred, the entire Pakistan Test series, and the full Sri Lanka white-ball tour. No return date has been confirmed.
Banton is not a cold selection. He scored an unbeaten 52 off 24 balls in the second T20I against Sri Lanka at Cardiff on September 17, hitting four sixes and steering England to a series-sealing win. He has made 28 consecutive England appearances since a conversation with head coach Brendon McCullum reshaped his confidence after a difficult comeback match against West Indies in June 2025.
“Baz came over to me and said something so small but so meaningful,” Banton said of that moment. “It’s something I always think back to.” Since then, three half-centuries and a settled role in the T20I middle order have followed.
Nasser Hussain described the transformation as a “second coming,” noting Banton’s technique against pace: “Anything that was pitched full, he cleared his front leg. Anything that was on the stumps, straight down the ground.”
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Brook named two skills: short ball and spin. That is not a random pair. Those are the exact tests that separate openers who last in international cricket from those who rotate through.
The new ball in ODIs swings, but it also bounces. Bowlers at this level test openers with short balls inside the first powerplay because most top-order batters in white-ball cricket are front-foot dominant. An opener who can pull, hook, or ride the bounce without flinching earns time at the crease. Against spin, the challenge is different. ODI middle overs are spin-heavy, and an opener who survives the new ball but cannot rotate strike against spin becomes a liability between overs 10 and 30. Banton’s record against spin, built across domestic T20s and franchise leagues, suggests he can handle both phases. Whether he can do it at the top of an ODI innings, facing a new white ball first, is the question this series answers.
England’s XI also features Rehan Ahmed in place of the injured Adil Rashid, and Kevin Pietersen in a white-ball mentor role, conducting spin masterclasses with the squad ahead of the series.
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