Skipper Sam Billings has explained why Alex Blake has been sat on the sidelines for the first five matches of Kent Spitfires’ T20 Blast campaign.

White-ball specialist Blake is yet to get the nod to play by Billings and head coach Matt Walker.

That comes despite Kent having lost four of their opening five T20 games while Blake has scored 194 runs for defending champions Hayes in the Kent League Premier Division at an average of 48.50.

On the 34-year-old, who helped Spitfires win the Royal London One-Day Cup last year, Billings said: “Blakey’s class, isn’t he?

“It’s really tough with his own situation on a white-ball contract. He’s always been an asset.

“Jack Leaning is, basically, played in that role - albeit he’s a right-hander compared to a left-hander. But statistically, Jack has been one of the best players in the last four overs, as he showed on Sunday [top scoring with a 22-ball 34 not out].

“We’d love to get Blakey in. But trying to find a way to do that, at the moment, is proving tricky, just with the balance of the side with Fred Klaassen out.

“It’s as simple as that.”

Spitfires have historically been slow starters and this year looks like being no different.

They actually won their T20 opener at home to Gloucestershire but have since suffered four straight defeats. Similarly, in County Championship Division 1, their only red-ball triumph came in the first fixture of the summer.

Billings stated: “If I had the answer, we wouldn’t be in this position!

“Without making excuses, we have a really thin squad, especially in the bowling department. There’s been various injuries.

“Ultimately, you have to look at the schedule and all the teams competing on all three fronts - Surrey being the perfect example - they've rested Dan Worrall, Tom Lawes is resting now, they’re two high quality bowlers.

“It’s very easy to look over the fence.

“But Nathan Gilchrist has been a big miss for us, character-wise as well as what he brings with the ball, where he brings something different - a real aggressiveness. He’s a great personality.

“Obviously, Freddie Klaassen hasn’t been around who is kind of our main talisman with the ball in T20. It does make a lot of difference.

“Kane Richardson has been ill and he’s coming back.

“People, obviously, just look at the results. But there’s a lot of factors that we’re trying to juggle.

“I’m not saying it’s the reason but all these things do play a part.”

There’s another big week in store for Kent.

They host Essex Eagles in front of the TV cameras tonight and Hampshire Hawks at the same venue two days later, before they return to County Championship action against Surrey at Canterbury starting from Sunday.

Billings conceded he isn’t sure if Gilchrist will be fit for the Surrey game while Dutch international Klaassen had been absent due to personal reasons but is named in their 13-strong squad for the Essex encounter.

Spitfires pushed Surrey all the way in their latest T20 match on Sunday in Canterbury before they lost off the final ball.

Billings said: “It does give you confidence as a team, of course, with people coming into form and bowling performances from different people stepping up. But it comes down to results at the end of the day.

“In T20, you have to be on it for 120 balls for both innings. If there’s a little lapse of concentration, whether it’s in the field or with the ball, with one bad over, the game can slip and the momentum can shift so quickly.

“They’re the small margins we need to iron out, really, as a team.

“If we start getting those things right, the result kind of takes care of itself. Somerset and Surrey have, obviously, kind of been the two tearaway sides in this group and we have lost three games collectively now to them by really small margins where actually we could have won all three.

“That comes down to the really small margins that I speak about. That’s the disappointing thing.”

There are, however, still another nine matches for Kent - 2021 T20 Blast winners - to turn things around and qualify for the knock-out stages. Billings is remaining upbeat.

He said: “If we win six of them, that gives us a chance, if we win seven of them, that almost asserts you into the qualification [spots]. But two-thirds of the nine? We can absolutely do that.

“We’ve seen so many times, if you get on a run in this format, then you become pretty unstoppable.

“It needs to happen pretty quickly but I have absolute confidence in the group of players that we have got.”