Jimmy Adams admits there is a fair chance Kent will go into the T20’s now with just one overseas signing after being linked with Bangladesh batsman Mohammed Ashraful.

With sides allowed to field two overseas signings within their eleven for the tournament, some counties load themselves up with expensive names to bring in the crowds, but Adams has told KSN that finances will probably dictate that Kent will start the tournament with just Brendan Nash in their squad:

“I never mentioned Mohammed. I was told he was playing over here and I acknowledged that, but that’s as far as it went.”

“Anyone that could add value, either batting or bowling could make an impact, but my gut feeling is that financially we’re not going to be able to afford a second overseas player coming in for T20 cricket.”

Despite seemingly going into the tournament with just the one overseas signing, Adams remains optimistic that his squad will be strong enough to compete:

“I tend to take a pragmatic view that what will be, will be and we’ll just do the best we can with whatever we have.”

“I certainly believe in the players that we have available now and we have the capacity to win T20 games if we play well. We should start preparing along those lines as we have potential match winners here.”

“I believe we can win games under pressure with the lads we’ve got here.”

One player that has returned to the Kent squad this week is all-rounder Azhar Mahmood after a two month stint in the Indian Premier League and Adams was thrilled to see him back and available for selection:

“It’s good to have him back. He’s a proven senior player, who’s been around for a long time and been performing for a long time as well. He’s in good health and it’s good to have that kind of quality around.”

“I’m sure he’s going to add tremendous value to everything that we’re doing here.”

Last week saw Kent dominate their County Championship game with Leicestershire at Canterbury, winning by an innings and 279 runs and for Adams it was a good all-round performance from his side:

“The lads played really well and to get a team out on what we thought was a pretty decent batting wicket, was credit to the bowlers for getting those twenty wickets.”

“The batting unit really put their heads down and batted the team into a pretty strong position. There were a lot of pluses and a lot of positives coming out of that game and the points were gratefully accepted.”

“Winning by that margin probably doesn’t happen as much as it did in the past and them winning the toss and batting first on  that type of good wicket, we thought it might be a long day, but the bowlers did really well on that first day to have our batsmen out their batting around tea time.”

“The batters then returned the compliment by getting their heads down and posting a good total. I was happy with the effort everyone put in during the game.”

One player that missed that game was opener Scott Newman after he returned to Middlesex after his loan spell came to an end with Sam Northeast coming into the side in his place, with Adams not ruling out a return for the batsman in the future:

“I will never say never, but we couldn’t ignore the runs that young Sam was scoring in the second team. He’s earned his right to be there and fingers crossed that’ll he’ll grab the opportunity and make good on it.”

This week sees Kent given a few days off ahead of their CB40 fixture against Warwickshire in front of the Sky cameras on Friday evening and Adams is hoping his side put the defeat to the Unicorns behind them and get back to winning ways in the One Day format:

“It’s an opportunity for everybody in the eleven. I don’t know quite what the team’s going to look like yet, but I’m sure everybody is chomping at the bit to get involved.”

“It will only be our third limited overs game of the season, so we are still looking at how we approach these games and it will be the first time this season that we’ve faced First Division opposition, so that’ll be a good test for the lads.”

“It will be nice to get a positive result having come out of that Unicorns game with a defeat. There will be a lot to play for.”

The game against Warwickshire begins at 4:40pm on Friday with tickets available from www.kentcricket.co.uk