Confidence is high in the Kent dressing room going into the start of the Royal London One-Day Cup, according to head coach Matt Walker.

They have won three of their opening four Specsavers County Championship matches and are hoping to replicate this form in the 50-over competition.

Kent begin with two away matches, the first is against Sussex at Hove today (Thursday) and this is followed by a trip to Radlett on Sunday to face Middlesex.

Walker said: “We are off the back of three wins so the confidence should be really high.

“We know we are in a good place mentally, spirit is fantastic and everyone is looking forward to that competition.

“50-over cricket is a bit of an extension of four day cricket in many ways. The skills are pretty transferable into that format. It’s about doing the basics really well over and over again.

“Having the right attitude in the field and having the batters make sure they are thinking about the white ball game.

“I would like to think everyone is in a good place and we can head in with a bit of confidence.”

Kent will be looking for much improvement on their disastrous campaign in 2017 where they finished bottom of the South group.

From eight matches they only managed one win.

Listen to a preview of the Royal London One-Day Cup in this week's Kent Cricket Podcast:

Walker said: “We have to better this year, across all disciplines. It was a bit of a strange campaign for us last year as we never really got it right. With the ball we struggled.

“We never really gave ourselves the chance to create pressure with the ball. I thought we showed some good signs with the bat.

“There were frustrations that when we did get it right with the ball we didn’t necessarily get it right with the bat.

“We have to get the basics right this year. We struggled to produce the basic skills that were needed.

“When it got a bit tough and the wickets were slower we struggled.

“I think we are in a much better place with the fundamentals this year and it is going to be an interesting season.”

The club have already had some success in 50-over cricket in 2018 after a successful tournament during pre-season in Antigua.

They lost in the semi-final of the West Indies Super 50 tournament to Barbados.

Walker added: “We do have the benefit of Antigua where we played the 50-over competition not that long ago.

“That hopefully will stand us in good stead. It’s a different mindset and a different format but the basics still apply.

“We have an exciting one-day team. It comes at a good time for our batters to get out of the tricky period of batting to go and play some white-ball cricket is what we need.”