Jimmy Adams insists Kent have the recipe for success, despite their winless start to the season.

Adams says despite his side sitting bottom of LV= County Championship, Division 2, there have been positives to take from their opening three games.

He said: “Sam Northeast in the middle order has been consistent. I’m hoping for himself
and the team’s sake he can convert one of these half-centuries pretty soon. It’s been good having that stability, though.

“Joe Denly has back-to-back half centuries – what we want is more of that. I like what
I’ve seen from Ivan Thomas in the last couple of games and Matt Coles getting wickets.

“It needs to be put together, though. Right now it has a feel of we have all the ingredients of a pudding, we just need to put it all together and put it in the oven and then enjoy the nice pudding. We don’t have that at the minute.”

Meanwhile, Adams has backed skipper Rob Key to come good, so long as he goes back to basics.

Despite dropping down the order to bat at No.3 this season, Key has scored 86 runs in his first six Championship visits to the crease and admits he is under pressure.

But Adams said he was not concerned: “He’s not scratching. It’s a case of getting that start – he knows what to do when he gets one, with 52 First Class hundreds.

“My advice to him is just stick to the basics and back yourself and your game, the same I’d say to any player. He’s good enough and has done it before, everybody knows he knows what to do. My role is just to keep him focused on the fact that he can do it.”

Kent’s eight-match winless streak stretches back to last July and Adams’ side have won just five of 25 home games in last three seasons.

The coach said: “We’d like to break that as soon as possible. You don’t want to be stuck in that rut for too long. There are a lot of games left. It’s all about remaining
positive – whether you get the results or not.”