With skipper Sam Billings and Joe Denly reporting for England ODI duty this weekend, there’s been some good and more frustrating news for Kent coach Matt Walker ahead of Kent’s trip to The Oval to face Surrey in game four of their Bob Willis Trophy campaign this weekend.

The Kent coach has confirmed to KSN that Jordan Cox will be part of the squad after he missed out on the Middlesex draw after breaching COVID-19 protocols. “it’s been a learning one for us all – it could have been anybody in that position – it’s not been a problem; everything’s fine, he passed all the tests, we move on and he’s back in the squad for the weekend and the trip to The Oval” Walker told us.

If Cox’s return is a relief for the Kent coach, the news that Heino Kuhn’s participation against Surrey is still very in doubt as his wife is still waiting to give birth to the couple’s first child must be frustrating for the coach, yet he admitted, “it’s a sensitive one, and I suspect again from the outside it looks like we’re being over cautious!” he said.

“But the big difference with Heino and Trudie is that they are the only two here – there’s no infrastructure around them; there’s no support network in place. It’s important that he’s there, it’s important that he supports his wife in this situation and it’s something that we’re very proud of at this club and very good at”

Walker then confessed, “ Of course we want Heino to play; we thought the baby was coming at Essex – it didn’t – so we assumed that it would be during the Sussex game – it didn’t – and this has carried on longer than I’m sure than anybody wouldn’t have wanted – especially poor Heino and Trudie!”

“But we’ll get there, and what’s happened off the back of that is that others have had more opportunity and you’d rather it happens this year rather than next! We can live with it and we’ve made that decision and we’ll stick by it and hopefully for everyone’s sake baby Kuhn will come sometime soon!”

The rotation of the bowlers will continue at The Oval. “I think they understand why,” Walker said. “They definitely get the message why we’re doing it. They would all like to keep going – of course they would as anyone who’s in any form with bat or ball just wants to keep playing.”

“There’s bound to be a little frustration but the thing is that as the season continues and moves forward and certainly looking at this weekend, we can start playing people back to back together – we are able to do that now.”

“We rested Podders (Harry Podmore) last weekend against Middlesex, whilst Stevo (Darren Stevens) is a different kettle of fish altogether – the years of bowling, the years of experience as well around him and his body with what works and what doesn’t!”

“He understands a lot better than some of our younger bowlers at the moment as he’s a “little bit different”!” So, we can roll Stevo out week in, week out whilst the younger ones we have to be a bit more careful with for obvious reasons.”

“But as the season goes on, the more they play, the more they bowl, the more in practice they’re building up their overs and their sustainability increases, we can start playing them a bit more frequently.”

“It was always going to be that early period when we were going to have to rotate around a little bit. At the moment, we’re at a stage where everyone wants to play so in some ways the rotation has worked really well. We’ve seen Fred Klaassen come in and do so well; Matt Milnes is fresher for the last game as was Grant (Stewart) – it’s been interesting to see how it has worked!”

“It’s not something that we’ll do next year as hopefully everyone will have a “normal” pre-season and we start the 2021 season on time after everyone has a great winter and we will pick our best side consistently to try and win a Championship and then we will rotate when we feel that we have to. This season is unusual, but I think everyone’s grasped what and why we’re doing.”

With the Vitality Blast beginning next week, Walker admitted, “we’ll be ticking over white ball skills in the next week, making sure that we’ve been getting some of that stuff into our practice – it’s difficult because you’re concentrating on the four day game, but you also having a look ahead making sure that you’re keeping ahead of the white ball variations from the bowlers point of view and from the batters just working on a few variations in the nets.”

“We wouldn’t normally rest players leading into a T20 game who have played both formats – you just have to get on with it and find a way to make sure you’re ready. It’s never perfect when you’ve only got one day to prepare – it’s crazy really but it is what it is and is what it has been since the formats split! So, we get on with it and we’ll be ready for Saturday and Thursday!”