Head Coach, Matt Walker, is keen to see Kent bounce back this weekend after defeat against Somerset last time out.

Kent return to Canterbury this Bank Holiday weekend for their final four-day game before their Vitality T20 Blast campaign begins as they welcome high flying Essex to the Spitfire Ground in the County Championship. 

“This is the schedule that we face,” head coach Matt Walker admitted to KSN as he looked ahead to the weekend after last weekend’s defeat to Somerset at Taunton.

“We’ve no time to lick our wounds and have to get straight back into things,” Walker said.

“It’s another massive challenge against one of the best sides in the country – we know a lot about Essex and what a good side they are – they have every base covered in their squad and in their team; whatever challenge they are faced with they seem to have the skills to deal with it as they showed last week against Warwickshire when they looked in absolute peril, they find a way to win a game of cricket!”

“And that is them down to a tee – they are an exceptional side!” 

“That said, we’ve done alright against them in the last few years – we’ve scrapped very hard and put in some good performances against them, so it’s the same message again this week… we have to try and put our “A game” on the park – they are human, and things can happen.”

“We will try and put them under pressure as much as we can; we know they have a lot of answers to those situations when their backs are against the wall, but it is what we have to do!” 

“We must keep asking good questions and keep challenging these good sides – every side we come up against this year will pose the same problems as they are all good sides in Division One with some exceptional sides and this is the challenge that we face, and you want to play against these sides.”

“That’s why we are in Division One, that’s why people want to be in this division as you want to play the best version of cricket that you can, and it does not get any tougher than this!” 

“We’ll take the positives out of the way we came back into the game last week at Taunton along with what we have done over the past few weeks and hopefully we can really put it all together on the page!”  

Walker then spoke about the squad and the further injury woes to the seamers with George Garrett and Nathan Gilchrist missing this weekend.

The Coach told us, “Neither are available – George has a groin strain, and we would have rested Gilly anyway as he has played three games in a row – we have a growing injury list again, but at least Wes (Agar) comes back into the side.”

“We will rest Bayers (Swanepoel) as he has a lot coming up on the back of landing in the country after a T20 block and we have to look after him and make sure he’s OK for what’s coming up around The Blast, so we’ll probably rotate him out, but Agar, (Grant) Stewart, (Joey) Evison, with (Matt) Parkinson coming back into the side with another bowler which is where we’re at.”

“We are hoping that Jack (Leaning) will be included after getting hit on the hand against Worcester and other than that everyone else has come through OK!” 

Walker also told us that Matt Quinn is still undergoing assessments from Kent’s medical teams after injuring his back in pre-season. 

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.