Kent have named a 12-man squad for their first NatWest T20 Blast game of the season; away at Somerset tomorrow evening.

The squad is made up by the majority of the players who appeared in Kent’s LV= County Championship defeat to Gloucestershire, which finished yesterday.

That means places in the side for the likes of Sam Northeast, Brendan Nash and Mitch Claydon, amongst others, while Doug Bollinger is set to feature in his first limited-overs match for Kent.

Adam Riley remains the Spitfires’ first choice spin option with James Tredwell still away on international duty with England for their limited-overs series against Sri Lanka.

Ben Harmison is the only one of team that faced Gloucestershire not to be included in the squad, despite the fact he hit a career-best 125 in the second innings of the 290-run loss.

Alex Blake is included in the 12; reward for his top-scoring knock of 60 in Kent’s defeat against Sri Lanka last Friday.

David Griffiths is also included in the squad.

While the game in Taunton is Kent’s first of their T20 campaign this year, Somerset have already played two matches in the newly-branded NatWest T20 Blast. They started with an 18-run win against Gloucestershire at Bristol last Friday, in which Craig Kieswetter and Alviro Petersen both made fifties and Dirk Nannes took 4-21, before losing by 61 runs to Surrey, despite Kieswetter again making a half-century.

Speaking about the squad that had been selected, Kent Spitfires Head Coach Jimmy Adams said: “We are keen to start the new competition on a winning note.

“It is an intense competition so we don’t want to slip off the pace early in the season.”

Of the four T20 matches played between Somerset and Kent, the Spitfires have won just one of them, to the home side’s three.

The match begins at 5.30pm on Friday 23 May, at the County Ground in Taunton.

 

Somerset squad to face Kent Spitfires: M Trescothick*, C Kieswetter, P Trego, A Petersen J Hildreth, N Compton, J Myburgh, A Thomas, M Waller, G  Dockrell, D Nannes, C Overton, J Overton

Kent Spitfires squad to face Somerset: R Key*, S Northeast, D Bell-Drummond, B Nash, D Stevens, A Blake, S Billings†, A Riley, A Ball, M Claydon, D Bollinger, D Griffiths