It's not a Sachin Tendulkar innings until he has played the straight drive. It's not a Ricky Ponting innings until he has smacked the pull. It's not a Suryakumar Yadav innings until he has flicked one over fine leg. Along the same lines, it's not a Tom Banton innings unless he has played the sweep - reverse or conventional.
Going down on one knee and using those hockey-trained wrists to access the square boundaries is so closely associated with Banton that every opposition plans for the shot. In the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, he used the sweep effectively on Sri Lanka's turning surfaces too, and Scotland captain Richie Berrington admitted after Saturday's match against England that he had turned to left-arm spinner Mark Watt against Banton with this shot in mind.
But Banton showed a different side of his game. Moving leg-side of the ball twice, he launched back-to-back sixes over Watt's head before pumping one over midwicket. Scotland had set fields for the sweep, and Banton was accessing other areas, leaving fans at the Eden Gardens clubhouse congregating to claim a crowd catch.
When these shots arrived, the chase was finely poised. One more wicket could have tilted the game Scotland's way. Banton had walked in at 13 for 2 with Jos Buttler and Phil Salt - neither strangers to Indian conditions, nor to Kolkata - dismissed for single digits. That had left England under early pressure in pursuit of 153, in what was a virtual must-win game.
The 22-run ninth over in which Banton took down Watt shifted the needle. From there, his clean, largely straight hitting carried him to an unbeaten 63 from 41 balls, his third-highest T20I score and potentially his most complete innings in an England shirt, on a day when Salt scored 2, Buttler 3 and Brook only 4. What stood out most was how he kept his most famous weapon locked in his holster.
"Yeah, I like to sweep and reverse, but I think my plan was to go as straight as possible. And then when they miss short, try and pull it away," Banton said after collecting the Player-of-the-Match award. "When your match-up comes on, you've got to really try and take it down and keep backing yourself. You've got to give yourself a chance as well.
"The situation kind of dictates how you're going to bat. I think today I could give myself a bit of a chance - good wicket, a fast-scoring outfield, and only chasing 150 - so I just thought, give myself a chance and then try and catch up down the line."
The restraint in Banton's shot choices showed a different side to his game. The No. 4 position is relatively new to him; he briefly occupied it in 2020 and 2021, but after striking at below 100 across six outings for England, Kolkata Knight Riders and Melbourne Stars, he moved elsewhere in the order.
Then, in December 2025, Banton spent much of the ILT20 batting at No. 4 for MI Emirates, averaging nearly 41 at a strike rate close to 145. His dominance against spin in that tournament was so compelling that England called him up for this T20 World Cup. With Salt and Buttler locked in as openers, Banton had to bat at No. 4 to find a place in the XI, with Harry Brook and Will Jacks moving down one spot. A brisk 29 and a blistering 54 not out in a series against Sri Lanka before the tournament all but secured him the slot, and at this World Cup he has been stationed there from the outset.
It was not a difficult decision for Brook, who knows Banton inside-out, and the England management to make. Banton and Brook have been team-mates since the time Brook captained England's Under-19 side. Brook, as the T20I captain, had had to explain the batting order on numerous occasions in recent weeks, including at the toss to Nasser Hussain in Kolkata. Banton has now shown his value at No. 4, and Brook offered further insight into his evolution.
"He [Banton] just said to me that he didn't want to give them a sniff as soon as he got in," Brook said after the game. "He didn't want to give them another opportunity of winning the game. I thought he played that game perfectly there. He has obviously matured as a player, as we've seen tonight. The way he chased that total down there, single-handedly really, with a couple of cameos in there with [Jacob] Bethell and Sam [Curran].
"Everybody in the world knows that he's a very good reverse-sweeper, so he's had to adapt his game because they try and stop him from hitting that shot. But he's a powerful player, he's got long levers, he can hit the ball out of any ground. He felt like Mark Watt at that time was his match-up, so he fancied taking him down. That's a good sign as a middle-order batter, when you feel on top and your match-up comes on, you go after it.
"Bants has slid into No. 4 perfectly. His stats against spin are among the best in the world and he can hit all around the ground. It's the ideal position for him."
The turnaround in Banton's career is remarkable because it was not long ago that he was reflecting on his relationship with the sport and admitted he "hated cricket" during a turbulent six-year stretch.
Tipped to be the next Kevin Pietersen after his early success with Somerset, Banton debuted for England a week before his 21st birthday and quickly became a sought-after name on the global T20 circuit. But as the grind of constant cricket caught up, Banton conceded he that "didn't train as hard" as he should have and slipped down the pecking order.
As the pandemic years receded, he reset - mentally as much as technically - and rediscovered his love for batting. Mentorship from Shane Burger at Somerset, Hashim Amla at MI Cape Town and Kieron Pollard at MI Emirates helped shape his next chapter. Somerset reached back-to-back Blast finals and won the title in 2023 on the back of Banton's contributions. He then became the second-highest run-getter in the 2024-25 ILT20 and finished fourth among the batters in the 2025-26 edition, the latter tournament coming days before the Sri Lanka tour that preceded the World Cup.
On Saturday, Banton played possibly his best innings in his new avatar, an innings as much about what he didn't do as about what he did. It was the kind of innings that felt like it was the first day of the rest of his England career.