Going to try and make it difficult for the selectors not to pick me: Banton

Tom Banton knows that competition for places at the top of the order in England's limited overs teams is fierce but he hopes to make it difficult for the selectors to leave him out by making the most of the opportunities given to him.

In the absence of Jason Roy, who is injured, and Jos Buttler, who has been rested, Banton opened the batting against Pakistan in the first of three T20Is at Old Trafford on Friday evening. Although rain eventually forced the abandonment of the game after 16.1 overs of England's innings, there was time enough for Banton to impress by registering his maiden T20I half-century.

After a slow start in Manchester - he took 12 runs from his first 13 deliveries - Banton then scored 59 from his next 29 balls, hitting five sixes in the process, which helped to bring England back into the game after the excellence of the Pakistan bowlers had restricted them to just 34 runs in the powerplay. Banton's innings of 71 was his highest score for England so far and followed his maiden ODI half-century in the final match of the series against Ireland earlier this month.

During that Ireland series, Banton batted in an unfamiliar middle order role which he admitted he found tough to adapt to. And before this series began, Eoin Morgan, England's captain, said it was difficult to give the 22 year-old opportunities to open, where he bats for Somerset, given the quality and depth of the top order batsmen England have at their disposal. Roy's injury has, however, presented Banton with an opportunity to bat in his preferred position in this series.

"I find the middle quite tricky obviously as I've not done it really at all. So I'd like to open if possible," Banton said. "I guess the white-ball team at the moment, when it's at full strength, is so good I'm not going to break into it at the moment. I'm just going to try and keep scoring as many runs and putting the other guys under pressure and we'll see how it goes from there."

Banton also opened the batting in three games against New Zealand in November when England were again without some of their first choice players but he failed to register a significant score. He impressed, however, with his ultra-aggressive approach and a strike rate of 170 across the three matches which fits the blueprint of how England want their openers to play in T20 cricket. Once Banton got going in this innings, he was similarly destructive. This time, however, he was also able to go on with things.

"I was probably just short of a bit of confidence," he said of that first international series in New Zealand. "They were my first games for England, and I was very nervous.This knock tonight has given me a bit more confidence that I can do it at this level. New Zealand was seven or eight months ago now, and I feel like I've grown as a cricketer.

"I've worked on a few things over the winter, technique-wise, just on my stance, etc. For me, I like to keep it quite simple. There will be days when you don't do well. It's one innings, I could go duck, duck in the next two. But for me it's just confidence and this has given me that, so hopefully I can keep putting scores on the board."

Banton was particularly harsh against the Pakistani spinners today. He hit Shadab Khan for three sixes and Imad Wasim for a fourth and looked the most comfortable of all England's batsmen against the tourists' slow bowlers. He was eventually dismissed by Shadab, attempting another big shot, which was the first of four wickets that England lost to Pakistan's spinners for just 14 runs in the space of 19 deliveries shortly before the rain arrived. The home team will need to do better in the remaining two matches.

Before that, Banton, who will be joining up with Kolkata Knight Riders at the IPL once his international commitments are finished, had also been able to show his credentials against pace. He scooped Haris Rauf three times over fine leg, once in the ninth over for a boundary, and then twice in the 12th over, one which went for four and the other which went for six. Against spin and against pace, then, there were plenty of examples in this innings of the all-round talent that Banton possesses.

"I see where the field is and try to assess what he's trying to bowl," he said. "I think that wicket was suited to slower balls, it was a bit tennis-bally and a bit tricky to begin with, they bowled really well and I struggled. Then I got a few away and it gives you that confidence to keep just going from there. The field...I kind of had a little guess at what he was going to bowl and luckily it came off."

There is, of course, a T20 World Cup coming up next year and Banton wants to continue to press his case for a seat on the plane to India in the remaining two matches against Pakistan. "I don't want to look too far ahead because there's a lot of cricket to be played before then," he said. "But I'm just going to keep trying to score as many runs as possible and make it difficult for the selectors not to pick me."