Captain Rob Key is questioning his own position in the Kent side and admits he needs to improve his own form.

The skipper made scores of 8 and 7 batting at number three as Kent drew with Leicestershire at Canterbury in their latest County Championship game.

Having failed to win their opening three games of the season, losing to both Lancashire and Essex, Kent have had a difficult start to the 2015 campaign and some of the playing stuff have come under intense scrutiny.

No more so than captain Rob Key who has a new role in the side this season, dropping down from batting and he told KSN how he needs to start playing better to warrant a place in the team:

“I don’t enjoy watching. It’s been too long now that I haven’t played well enough. I need to go and sort myself out. It’s not good enough for whatever reason – whether it’s mentally, technically or whatever.”

“I play the game really because I love batting. I don’t enjoy fielding – I can be honest about that, I don’t think it’s any surprise to many people, and I enjoy winning games of cricket. The county needs me scoring runs, not batting like a muppet.”

Key went on to add how he looks to turn his own form around: “It’s something that I have to try to work out how to do. I didn’t have a great year last year, and coming into this year, I played alright for 30-odd at Lancashire, but it’s 30-odd.”

“I have to try and work out what that is, and there’s lots of ways of doing that, I suppose. I just have to try and work out the best way of doing it.”

Key always looks at his best when attacking the opposition bowling and pre-season looked in great nick in the nets, but admits he needs time in the middle before he can start asserting himself:

“I need to be in long enough to try and do that, which I haven’t been at the minute! It was a tough game, this game, but I always say – it only takes three hours to get yourself right.”

“For whatever happens as a captain and whatever happens as a team, I generally judge myself on how many runs I score, and at the moment, I’m not judging myself particularly well.”

One person having gone through a similar struggle is England captain Alastair Cook and having scored a century against the West Indies, seems set to keep his place for many months and years to come.

For Key, the issue is similar, but puts everything into perspective:

“The problem is, when you look at someone like Alastair Cook, you think to yourself: “Why am I struggling or moaning, because I’m not playing Test cricket with all the scrutiny.” I’ve not got Piers Morgan slating me everyday on Twitter!”

“I might have a few Kent members that are probably not happy with my form at the minute, and quite rightly so, but they’re not Piers Morgan, thank God!”

Looking back at the game against Leicestershire, Key believes there were chances for Kent to have won the game, but in the end his side did as well as they could with so much time lost to the weather:

“It was a shame the rain came – it would’ve been an interesting game either way to see what happened if we hadn’t lost 26 or 27 overs. I reckon day three – was the first day we’d actually turned up to play cricket properly.”

“We bowled like we should do – like we should’ve done from day one really, which we haven’t done, and we batted well. I thought Deebz batted brilliantly. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s disappointing to say you’ve played Leicestershire and had a draw.”

“We’ve not played anywhere near as well as we should’ve done until probably day three, really. Even then, it was a little bit too late.”

“We almost snuck in through the back door. We need to start dominating games. It was a really good day’s cricket on Wednesday, and a good four-day game. It goes down to the wire, with all results possible, up to about five overs to go. It was a shame, but it still isn’t where we need to be at the minute.”

The mood going in the dressing room going into the final session was a positive one and Key revealed his side had one eye on trying to win the game:

“I always say: “just go and bat, go out there and play, and then we’ll see where we are at lunch, tea, whenever it is”. When we got to the point where Nashy and Deebz had played really well and Deebz was in, we thought: “Right, it’s a manageable total now.”

“We wanted to take the game deep and actually get out there and win it. Obviously Stevo getting out, I thought, was very unlucky – I don’t think he was anywhere near that, and that killed us off a little bit, because we’d lost probably one too many wickets and with Stevo and Bilbo in, it would’ve been a different story.”

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. It’s a shame really, because I thought he was very, very unlucky, Darren Stevens.”

A real positive to come from the game was seeing Daniel Bell-Drummond past three figures for the first time this season and Key had special praise for the young opener:

“I got asked: “How do you get confidence?”, whether you score a hundred or get five wickets and start bowling well and you win a game. We’ve not quite got that far yet, but Deebz, individually, I thought showed great character, actually.”

“He was under real pressure coming into this game – we were under the pump. We’d not played well enough, really, to be in that position. I though Leicester had played really well. It’s just really, really good to see a young guy coming out of what had been a tough start to the season for him.”

“Early season is hard as an opener – I know that better than anyone. I thought it was great character from him to put us in a position, actually, that gave us a chance of winning, that was unlikely when we started the day.”

Kent now have a few days to prepare for their next County Championship game against Glamorgan beginning at Canterbury on Sunday.

With no win in their opening three games, Key believes this one now becomes a must-win, but then so do the rest of the campaign:

“I think every game is a must-win. You just want to start winning some games of cricket, otherwise it’s a long, long year if you’re not.”

“We need to start bowling better and batting better, which would be nice. Hopefully Wednesday was a start, but we’ll have to see what happens next week.”

This weekend Kent welcome James Tredwell back into the fold after his stint with England in the West Indies and Key is mulling over how to get both him and Adam Riley into the same side:

“It’s an interesting position to be in, really, which I actually don’t have the answer for you at the minute. There’s lots of different angles and different arguments to play, and how you do it, depending on surfaces and stuff like that.”

“Also, what I will say, is that I think Treddy is bowling outstandingly well. At pre-season, I thought he was bowling as well as he ever has done. I think Treddy would admit as well that over the last couple of years, he’s not been anywhere near where he knows he can be.”

“What I’ve seen – I’ve seen him his whole career – and I honestly believe at the minute that he’s one of the best spinners in England, as he showed in that West Indies Test.”

“I thought he was a bit unlucky really. I thought he probably would’ve made a real difference had he played in that last Test match with the way he’s bowling.”

“Treddy at his best – he’s got it on a piece of string. When I watch Sky and see him bowling in that Test match, and at pre-season here, you know that he’s back to his very best.”

Tredwell could well come back into the Kent side with a point to prove after being overlooked for the second and third Tests against the West Indies, but Key is unsure how the next few months will pan out with two quality spinners to pick from:

“How we go from here, I haven’t got the answer for you. I don’t think he has got a point to prove, really, to the England selectors, because I think he showed them exactly what he was and what he was about – arguably the best spinner in the country.”

“It’s an interesting time for English cricket, and being an English spinner. How are they going to go for this New Zealand series? What side they are going to pick for that, I could not tell you. You would like to think – and the same with Adam Riley as well – it’s all on for young and old, really.”

“If you’re a spinner in this country now, like Treddy or Riles, you’re not far away from playing a Test match, I think.”

“Especially when you come to the summer, where we haven’t had a huge amount of rain. OK, it rained in this game, but spin could be the difference really, so I think it could be a massive opportunity for both of those two.”

Key knew some time ago there would be a chance of playing both at some stage this season and now the time is almost upon us, the Kent captain admits there is a strong chance both Tredwell and Riley would line up against Glamorgan:

“We have to start looking at it. We have two very, very good spinners – probably the two best spinners in the country, I would go as far to say.”

“With the dry weather and a wicket that’s conducive, who knows? We might end up playing double spin, which would be the first time in a long time here at Kent.”