Kent spinner James Tredwell is working with club legend Min Patel as he prepares for England’s limited overs series in Australia in the New Year.

Fellow slow bowler Patel played more than 300 games for Kent during a stay at the county that lasted nearly 20 years, and the 43-year-old is now lending a hand to Tredwell before he heads Down Under for the ODI and T20 series in January.

Though it might be something of a quiet time of year at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Tredwell is a regular visitor, ensuring he is in prime condition for his international commitments.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with Min Patel on my bowling and obviously with Jimmy [Adams], Simon Willis and whoever was at the ground as well on my batting” said Tredwell when he spoke to KSN. He also admitted that it had been “really nice in that I’ve been able to spend time at home as well”, after his wife Bethan recently gave birth to their second child.

The work between Patel and Tredwell came about through former England spinner Peter Such – now the ECB’s National Spin Coach. “He [Patel] does a bit with Peter Such”, Tredwell explained. “Peter Such is the lead spin bowling coach and Min does a bit with him around various counties in the south. He’s been working with Middlesex last year and obviously he works with our younger spinners at Kent in the Academy as well. Peter kindly put some of his funds from his spin budget to help me and make sure I was prepared if the call did come over the winter.”

The pair of spinners were also colleagues at Kent as recently as 2007, so their relationship has helped. “Min and I have obviously got a personal sort of thing as well. There were a few things that I wanted to work on “red ball-wise” as well so that hopefully will benefit Kent longer term. “It’s been good that I’ve been able to marry his work with the Academy with the stuff that I’ve been doing that hopefully is benefitting spinners for the future for the club as well in that they are seeing what I’m doing and the kind of things that, potentially, they may have to do to get to the next level.”

With more than 30 international caps and almost 500 domestic appearances, Tredwell has a wealth of experience in both domestic and international cricket, but he is well aware that he cannot afford to take his foot off the gas.

“You have a basic technique which you try and keep at the top of its game”, he said. “You obviously have things in and around that – whether that’s plans for various batters that we might come across in the New Year, whether it’s genuine skill and variations – you’re always adding to your game.

“The game evolves so quickly nowadays that if your game stands still and you don’t change anything you can very quickly find things going against you.”

Tredwell has also recently stepped down as Kent captain, allowing him to focus on his international career, and he admits that it has given him more time to work on his own game.

“It’s been quite nice in a way”, he said. “There were a few things I wanted to work on personally in the game and it’s given me a chance to be able to do that. Maybe you don’t realise how much less time you have [when you are captain] because you’re mentally always on it in terms of skippering as well. Like I’ve said before, I would still like to be captain but I just felt it was the right decision at that time to pass it on.”

Kent will be hoping that the weather is kinder to them in their pre-season preparations this year, after proving somewhat problematic in their 2013 pre-season. The squad may even look to head overseas if the opportunity arises.

“Fortunately I missed most of it!” said Tredwell on the 2013 cold spell. “But as I understand it wasn’t great. We’ll see how it goes really. I guess it will depend on funding and stuff and whatever the decision is made as the best possible preparation really – maybe what is our priority in terms of next year. It would be lovely to get an away trip but if that’s not the case we’ll have to do the best we can with the facilities we’ve got.”

After a disappointing 2013 season that saw Tredwell missing for large parts due to his England commitments, and struggling in four-day cricket with Kent (he picked up just 17 wickets in his 11 appearances at an average of 56.76) he is now ready to rediscover his best form for both club and country.

“It’s safe to say I didn’t have my best year in red ball cricket last year, and I’m really keen to turn that around”, he said.

“I think it is really exciting times for us as a team – we’ve got some really exciting young players – two or three of them are doing really well out in Australia which is great to see. With that, married along with the senior guys that we’ve got, I think we can really play some good cricket this year.”

“Where that will get us, we shall see, but ultimately we want to play good cricket and try and bring some younger players on, but also win some games of cricket and hopefully progress as a side and see where that takes us.”

“To say we’ll do this, that and the other in terms of results would be wrong, but I think we’ve got an exciting group at the moment and we could do something next year.”

Kent picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com