‘Something clicked' – Somerset's Tom Banton on the secret behind his record 371

The Guardian

10-04-2025

Not content with plundering a club-record 371 for Somerset to start the season, Tom Banton followed it up a couple of days later by nailing his first albatross on the golf course. Given the way England operate these days, taming the seventh hole at Minehead may have impressed Brendon McCullum more. It is Masters week, after all.
Either way, Banton is on the rise, his cross-format form glowing and culminating in that epic at home to Worcestershire. Having never before faced 200 balls in a first-class match, the 26-year-old stitched together 403 at the crease, slotting 56 fours, two sixes, and marching past Graeme Smith (311), Jimmy Cook (313no), Viv Richards (322) and Justin Langer (315 and 342) to sit top of leaderboard at Taunton.
'I'm not sure I will ever have a week like it,' says Banton, on the team bus en route to Hove for round two against Sussex on Friday. 'I joked with our captain, Lewis Gregory, the day before saying: 'I don't understand how people can bat for so long'. But something kind of clicked and I just kept reminding myself to keep going, to not throw it away.
'When I was on 329, Alfie Ogborne ran out and told me about [Langer's] record. There were three overs to go in the day. I thought: 'Right, I'm going for it'. To hear the crowd cheer was just a 'wow' moment and I was pretty emotional in the dressing room afterwards. There were a few tears and the boys were absolutely buzzing.'
The albatross probably comes second, hearing this, but even that shot – reward for risk and aggression that had him haring around the links like a maniac – underlines the sweet spot Banton finds himself in. Over the past 12 months, he has made five centuries in all formats, averaging 50 at a strike rate of 98. The catalyst – ditching the side-arm ball-thrower that has become so ubiquitous in modern coaching – is fascinating.
'I picked it up from watching Harry Brook,' he says. 'I saw him just having standard throwdowns out of the hand a while back and I decided to go with that. I now do small drills that get me into a good headspace and I have stuck with it. The sidearm, for me, just feels too different to a bowler, the point of release and the angle. I would walk out of nets in a worse place than I went in. Bad habits were creeping in.
'I also used to get so worried about getting out in red-ball cricket, how it looked, but now I'm trying to emulate how I feel in T20; to make the formats as close as possible when I am out there. You're probably going to get out whatever happens so for me it's trying to put pressure back on the ball and scoring as quickly as possible.'
Talk of Brook, England's new white-ball captain, and the desire to put pressure back on bowlers brings us inevitably on to international cricket. Banton ended the winter in the setup – an unused reserve during the Champions Trophy after one outing in India – and on current form looks a good bet to break back into the white-ball XIs at least. Given McCullum's general approach, a first Test cap could very much be in the offing.
The question that follows is where? England's established Test middle order of Joe Root, Brook and Ben Stokes means any possible vacancies are likely to appear higher up. Banton says he would naturally take any opportunity but is enjoying life at No 5. 'I have tried opening for Somerset,' he says. 'It did not go well.' Thoughts of Dan Lawrence's tortured stab at opening last summer spring to mind here.
But then, by his own admission, Banton is a different beast to his younger self. Having drawn early comparisons with Kevin Pietersen due to their height and dominance down the ground, and won the first of 21 white-ball caps in late 2019, he did not quite put up the numbers and has since admitted to briefly falling out of love with the sport.
It all came a bit too quickly, with Banton beamed up to franchise cricket, in parallel with England, before he truly knew his own game. As well as that notable tweak in training, his revival this past year has been down to re-embracing the County Championship and a club that has spent 134 years trying to win its first title.
'I would love to play Test cricket but there are a lot of great players pushing their case,' he says. 'I do not want to get ahead of myself, I just want to keep doing well for Somerset. Winning our first County Championship, that is the main goal for me.
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'Sometimes people take [county cricket] for granted. On day one last week, I think we walked out to 3,000 people in the stands and it was such a buzz. It is such a well-supported and special club and I think there are special things happening here.'
Next up is Sussex, and while Ollie Robinson misses out with a foot injury, there is still a Test-quality new-ball bowler in West Indies' Jayden Seales to negotiate. Coming after such a huge score in the opening round – but also what was an agonising draw with Worcestershire nine down – the question is asked whether Banton would have swapped that triple century for a win.
'I want to win,' Banton says, without a pause. 'Coming back into the changing room after, having not won, everyone was pretty broken to be honest. It was a tough one to take but we have to forget about it and focus on what is ahead.
'The triple century was amazing. I don't think it will probably ever sink in or feel real, to be honest. I never believed it would be possible. It is crazy what you can do if you put your mind to something and it's quite weird when it actually happens.'
Having learned a few things about himself this past week – and got the albatross off his back on the links at Minehead – a season of possibilities has opened up for Banton.