Following the frustrations and disappointment of being knocked out of the Vitality Blast at the group stage, Kent return to County Championship as Warwickshire visit the Spitfire Ground today and KSN have been talking to coach Matt Walker.

“We had a really good with at Northampton last time out,” Walker reflected.

“They may be bottom of the table but we’re down that end too! We didn’t make a massive deal about it before the game, but the lads were well aware of the situation and we made it pretty clear that we’re in a bit of a dog-fight in the division and it was an enormous, game let’s be honest, as if we hadn’t got even a draw out of the game, it would have been a heck of a disappointment in terms of the table.” 

“But the fact that we won is an enormous positive – the style and the way that we played was great to see, I thought that we were excellent from ball one and the performances throughout the game was exactly how we had to go about things, giving us full batting points and full bowling points and the points for the win, you really can’t ask for any more!” 

“We dominated the game and gave a lot of people an awful lot of confidence as lots of people put their hands up. Some really good individual performances with some absolutely off the charts and it was a real team effort – we needed it and I think, also on the back of the Surrey game, we’ve played two really good games of cricket – one we lost, one we won – and if we can keep that positivity in the process about how we go about it, things will happen; you may lose, you may win, but if you’re playing as well as you can, things will turn for you definitely!” 

“It’s the same message this week against Warwickshire as we face another good side at the top end of the table and they’ve beaten Surrey earlier in the year – a high quality team, but we’ve got to stick to what we do best and put into practice what we’ve been doing in the last two Championship games.”

“The boys have had a bit of time off so I hope that the boys will come in fresh and hungry and put in a similar performance!” 

Kent do have injury worries going into the game with Daniel Bell Drummond and Wes Agar both ruled out through injury leaving the squad stretched.

“The injury list is long and distinguished,” Walker confessed, “it’s not about feeling sorry for ourselves or moaning about it as it’s one of those things.”

“Sometimes you come through challenging periods relatively unscathed, but it’s caught up with us this year in a big way.” 

“Joe (Denly) will be back which is good, but we will miss DBD and Wes, but we get Arshdeep back. We’re a little bit thin on the ground, but we’ve been here before.”

“People come in and get opportunities and stand up which is why we have a squad – of course you want your best team all the time, but it very rarely happens for an extended period as you have to rest people.”

“It’s all part and parcel of the game but it has hit us pretty hard! We’ll just have to grit our teeth and back those coming in and fight hard over the next four days!” 

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.