With Kent facing a possible bowler shortage ahead of Lancashire’s trip to the St Lawrence Ground on Thursday, coach Matt Walker was in a reflective mood when he spoke to KSN the week.

With Harry Podmore and Grant Stewart both picking up injuries in the defeat to Yorkshire, Walker admitted, “It’s something that you talk about a lot, hence is why we’ve built the squad up in the last few years, but we still weren’t expecting going into game three to have so many injuries!”

“But it happens like that sometimes and they happen all at once which is tough to deal with. But we have got plenty of players waiting in the wings and their opportunity will come as I’ve said to you at the start of the year.”

“Where it’s obviously disappointing for one or two people, the opportunity will open for others which is how it works! I’ve always said that whatever side we put out, I feel very confident that we can do a good job.”

“So, we’re now looking forward to Lancashire this week and try and bounce back from last week and put a better performance than we did.”

Kent lost Podmore with a side strain during Yorkshire’s first innings – an injury which Walker confirmed was a “first” for the young seamer.

“I think it’s his “first” injury – ever,” the coach confirmed. “It’s certainly his first “time-loss” injury which is what he’s facing now. Any sportsman will tell you that it’s not a lot of fun being injured, and I think that very first one is quite unusual because you don’t know what to do with yourself.”

“Harry’s got a side strain which is a pretty significant injury to have as a bowler and it’s going to need a bit of time to get it right. It’s tough for him – second game in – it’s always a tough break to take when you want to start the season well, starting as you want to continue.”

“Unfortunately, Harry’s going to be out for a while and we’re obviously waiting on a few others as well.”

Walker then went through the rest of his injured list. “We’re still waiting on Heino (Kuhn) to see if his calf will make it in time for Lancashire – it is dragging out a little bit and he’s still on the edge of being one hundred percent fit.”

“Tim Groenewald has had an operation on a knee which is another tough injury to deal with, and he’ll be out for a period of time too.”

“Imran Qayyum’s got a shoulder issue and when I’m talking to you, we’re still waiting on the feedback to Grant Stewart’s abdominal injury which stopped him bowling in Yorkshire’s second innings.”

“So, you could say that there’s a few things happening at the moment, which is all part and parcel I suppose, and we’ve just got to deal with it – we’ve got the players waiting in the wings to come in and step up.”

“We played Yorkshire this last week, and they had injuries in their first game and I suspect that it’s going to be a very interesting period for all sides with eight games of Championship cricket all in a row, along with an early season start in the cold weather – whether that has anything to do with it or not, I don’t know; it really is going to be quite a challenging period for our bowlers, especially with a lot of cricket and a lot of workload over quite a short space of time.”

“So, we’ve got to be very cautious on how we look after our bowlers – and everyone really, but when you lose someone like Harry who’s been a big success for us over the last couple of seasons, it is a blow, but that’s why we have a squad.”

“You’ve got to have a depth of squad to try and compete and succeed and luckily enough we’ve got bowlers to come in and I know that they will be excited to take the opportunities. I have every faith in the young guys who will come in and hopefully take their chance!” 

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.