Sam Northeast will continue as Kent captain in 2017 after being unanimously reappointed by the club’s cricket committee.

The 26-year-old right-hander has led the first team out on 100 occasions since first being handed the honour in the pre-season match against Loughborough MCCU in 2011 and took over the reins from Rob Key during the 2015 season.

The Ashford-born ace said: “It’s an honour to be appointed captain again next year. I’ve loved having the opportunity to lead the lads and shape the way we play the game.

“We have a core of players who have developed at the club but it is great to see everyone hungry to push on and improve as a group.

“We are not the finished article yet and will be working hard with the coaches and support staff to bring home some silverware.”

Kent are 24 points behind Specsavers County Championship Division 2 leaders Essex with two games remaining, the first of which is against Northamptonshire at Beckenham from 11am on Tuesday.

Northeast added: “We are going to need to win our last two to put pressure on Essex. We need to keep producing the aggressive brand of cricket we’ve been playing and if we can do that it would be great to go into the last game against Essex knowing that if we win we’ll be promoted.”

Since Northeast took over at the helm he led Kent Spitfires to quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast in 2015 and the Royal London One-Day Cup this season, narrowly missing out against Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively.