The runs have dried up for Daniel Bell-Drummond after his purple patch at the start of May but the young opener says he’s not about to hit the panic button.

The 21-year-old has scored just 61 runs in seven innings in all competitions since hitting 123 in the first innings of the LV= County Championship, Division 2 draw against Glamorgan at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.

That century was his second in succession after the 103 he scored in the second innings of the draw at the same venue against Leicestershire.

Regardless of his run of low scores, Bell-Drummond remains upbeat , despite falling for 20 and nine against Surrey at Beckenham this week.

He said: “It’s always tough going in against the new ball. That comes with the territory of being an opener but that’s not an excuse.

“I feel as though I am striking the ball fine but you just have patches in this game when you can’t seem to get a run no matter how good you feel.

“I am not too worried. I will keep doing the same things, stay positive and hopefully start to put big runs on the board again soon.”

Sam Northeast has been captaining Kent since Rob Key decided to take a short break before returning to play purely as a batsman against Surrey this week.

And Northeast has been doing a impressive job, according to Bell-Drummond.
He said: “Sam has handled it well.He is a lot similar to Keysy but that’s not surprising because he’s played so much under him.

“Keysy is a great captain, so it’s no surprise that Sam has got a few of his traits but he’s also brought some fresh ideas of his own into play."