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“I’m just backing myself a bit more” – Bants reflects on impressive 2024
2024 was an outstanding year for Tom Banton.
He scored nearly 900 First Class runs at an average of 49.5 with a best of 133 and amassed over 500 runs in the Vitality Blast at an average of 46.81 with a best of 79 not out.
However, his season came to a premature end when he injured ankle ligaments during the warm up on day two of the Vitality County Championship clash with Surrey.
We caught up with him this week to find out the latest on his injury, discuss the 2024 campaign and to look ahead to next season.
We started off by asking about his ankle.
“There’s still a bit of discomfort but I’ve been running this week,” he explained. “Ligaments take a long time to get better but I’m really sticking to my rehab programme and things are going pretty well.”
How would he sum up 2024?
“Winning trophies is why we play the game, and we came very close this year in all three formats. This time last year we talked about how we wanted to be competing for trophies in September and as it turned out we found ourselves in a position where we were challenging for all three. Obviously, we’re all incredibly disappointed not to have won anything but it was still a very good season for the Club.
“This winter we will be really looking at what we can do to get over that line in the future. We’ve already had some good conversations about it, and we need to make sure that we don’t come up short again.”
Tom also talked about his form in four-day cricket.
“It’s been a good year for me in red-ball cricket and I think that comes down to confidence,” he said. “I’ve stuck with things that I’ve probably not tried to do in the past and I’ve felt much more confident in my defence. I’ve been looking to score positively without being reckless. I’ve just been backing myself a little bit more. Previously, I was just so worried about getting out and how that looks. I think I’ve just figured out that I don’t need to over worry about what people are going to think.”
Despite his injury, Tom hobbled out to bat against Surrey in what was one of the standout moments of the summer. Was there any chance that he wouldn’t go out to bat?
“The game was on the line, and we were challenging for that Championship title. I was told that I didn’t need to bat if I couldn’t, but I felt that if I could go out there and just score 20 runs it might make all the difference. It almost made it easier for me because I was just solely focusing on the ball and not having to worry about moving my feet.”
What does the winter have in store for Tom?
“I’ll carry on with my rehab and I’m flying out to Abu Dhabi for the T10 competition on Sunday. I’ll be over there with Tom Kohler-Cadmore which is pretty exciting. Then I’m going to Dubai for the ILT20League in January and then before you know it it’ll be April and we’ll be playing our first Championship game.”
Was does 2025 have in store for Somerset and Tom?
“Hopefully some trophies! I’m not to worried about individual scores, I just want to be putting in match winning contributions for Somerset so that we can win those trophies.”
How can Somerset go one better next year and secure some silverware?
“It’s a secret! You’ll have to wait and see!”
