Kent captain Sam Northeast has expressed his excitement at the club’s signings of Kagiso Rabada and Tom Latham in recent weeks.

The club announced the signing of 20-year-old South African Rabada for a six-week spell in June and July on February 18th, and followed it up with the announcement of New Zealand opener Latham, 23, less than a week later.

Rabada impressed in South Africa’s recent Test series with England, where he took 13 wickets in the final Test at Centurion last month, and also caught the eye in the following ODI and T20 internationals. His signing was something of a coup for Kent, who are believed to have fought off competition from other counties, including the likes of First Division outfit Durham, to secure his signature.

New Zealand international Latham is expected to be available to Kent for the majority of the 2016 season, to play in all formats. The Christchurch-born batsman can also keep wicket, with the county’s first choice wicket-keeper Sam Billings expected to miss some of the domestic campaign on international duty with England.

“Rabada and Latham are two guys who’ve really impressed on the international scene this winter, and I think they fit the bill really well”, Northeast told KSN when asked about the two new signings.

“They come into a side which is young and ambitious, and are exactly what we wanted. I think they’re going to fit into the side really well.”

“When we looked at the overseas guys, something that we wanted was guys who could come in and really make an impact, but also would fit into our squad really well”, Northeast explained.

“With Rabada and Latham, when those two names cropped up, straight away we wanted to sign them. They looked like a perfect fit for us, and we’re hoping that is going to be the case this summer.”

2015 proved to be something of a “nearly, but not quite” season for Kent, with the side suffering narrow defeats in the quarter-finals of both the NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup competitions, and a seventh placed finish in the County Championship Division Two.

Northeast is confident that the club’s new signings can help take the side further this summer, and is keen for them to develop and keep improving in all three formats.

“I don’t want us to be labelled as a one-day side”, the skipper said. “I’m hugely ambitious with what I believe this team can achieve. With the extra signings we’ve had, we’re a really exciting side.

“If it doesn’t happen this year, I’m sure it will happen at some stage, as long as we’re making the right progression and we’re going forward. Yes, it would be nice to win something at some stage, but I’m hugely excited about the group of players we’ve got.

“We’ve got to start thinking about winning things and progressing and getting promoted, rather than just saying: “We’re a group of young players.””, Northeast continued.

“We’re a group of young players who should be going on and achieving things in the game. We want to go one step further in white ball, and we want to go one step further in all cricket.”