Coach Jimmy Adams says Sam Northeast is revelling in the Kent captaincy, claiming he is proud of the batsman’s growth and revealing he will continue to lead Kent for the foreseeable future.

The 25-year-old has showed his class in the past few weeks with Rob Key out of the side – not least with his record NatWest T20 Blast century against Somerset on Sunday which ensured fireworks from West Indian star Chris Gayle were in vain.

Northeast has scored 330 runs in Kent’s five T20 games so far at an average of 82 and 518 more in Championship cricket at an average of 47 – Kent’s highest run scorer in either format.

Adams said: “He’s coping quite well. He seems fairly comfortable and the lads are giving him all the support they can. He seems to be enjoying it which is sometimes half the battle.”

Adams said it was “too early to tell” how long Northeast will retain the captaincy, adding: “It’s something we’re monitoring week by week.

"It’s hard to predict where this part of the journey will end as it’s a unique situation. I wouldn’t want to stick my neck out and say what will happen.

“We’re just happy to have a young leader in position, seemingly enjoying what he’s doing, performing well with the team responding – we’ll roll with that.”

He added: "I’m very happy and proud of the young man. He’s been under pressure having, at very short notice, been handed the leadership reins of the team.

"He’s been in really good form, but more than that, using that form to put us in match-winning positions which I think is very important."

Adams also claimed if an overseas player had made Northeast’s superb 114 on Sunday, then he would be heralded as world class alongside Gayle, who smashed an unbeaten 151 from 62 balls in a losing effort.

He said: “There’s nothing disgraceful in Sam’s stats (114 from 58 balls). If Sam had been an overseas player, people would have been saying ‘whoa’ – it was a world class performance.

“Chris nearly won the game on his own. But Sam was setting a score and with the experience he has compared to Chris, I would rate Sam’s knock highly next to it.”

Kent will look to maintain their lead at the top of South Group when they host Gloucestershire at Beckenham tomorrow (Friday, 5.30pm) before a return to LV= County Championship, Division 2 action against Derbyshire at Canterbury on Sunday.

Adams said: “We’ve worked our way into a good start in this competition (NatWest T20 Blast) and the challenge is to see if we can turn on performances as we go along. Every team is strong enough to get results, including us. I don’t think we can afford to sit back and relax.

“We also want to see if we can pick ourselves up and play some more consistent stuff in four-day cricket, starting Sunday. We have momentum we can build on.”