There is no rush from Kent’s hierarchy to make any captaincy calls.

Sam Billings started 2023 as Kent’s skipper and remains club captain. But he stepped down as Kent captain in four-day cricket in June after a miserable start to the year, being replaced by Jack Leaning.

Leaning also captained Kent at the beginning of their unsuccessful One-Day Cup defence, only for Joe Denly to return from injury and replace him in the latter stages of the 50-over competition.

“We’ll have to think about that over the winter period,” admitted newly-appointed Kent director of cricket Simon Cook.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to jump in and make any rash decisions around that. We have plenty of time before the beginning of next year.

“Jack has done a good job, DBD [Daniel Bell-Drummond] has done a great job when he’s played, and Bilbo [Billings] has done a good job, winning a trophy in 2021 in white-ball cricket.

“There are some other candidates as well.”

One player who will definitely play a key Kent role next year is England international spinner Matt Parkinson who will join on a three-year contract.

Ahead of his permanent switch, he came into Spitfires’ One-Day squad on loan from Lancashire and finished with 17 wickets at 18.47.

Indeed, he was central to most of Kent’s 50-over wins - despite the side, coached by Cook, failing to get out of the group stages.

But Cook wouldn’t commit to saying spin-heavy bowling attacks is exclusively the way Kent will go when Parkinson arrives permanently.

He said: “If you’re signing a guy like Matt Parkinson, you want to be building your attack around that sort of player.

“Are you going to say it’s going to be completely spin-dominated? Probably not because, actually, we have a decent bank of fast bowlers.”

Cook thinks Ekansh Singh is another exciting prospect who could have a big Kent future.

He said: “There’s some of the young Academy players, as well - Ekansh Singh has done pretty well.

“He came into our One-Day Cup team and he’s done well as an all-rounder in second-team cricket.”

Leaning sung the praises of wicketkeeper Harry Finch after the first day of their final County Championship Division 1 match of the summer against Lancashire at Canterbury on Tuesday.

Finch, who has helped fill the void left by departing Jordan Cox - who is out injured - and Billings in the first-team squad for much of 2023, took a superb diving catch to dismiss Steven Croft.

“He’s gone from strength-to-strength this year," said Leaning.

“If you saw him keep today, and then said that he’s only been keeping properly for 12 months, you’d laugh. It’s ridiculous!

“He’s put in a heck of a lot of hard work here with his keeping and he looks like somebody who is going to go from strength-to-strength with the confidence he gains.

“If someone like Foakesey [Ben Foakes] had taken the catch he took, it would have been all over social media and people would have been waxing lyrical, so I hope he gets the same recognition.”

Kent had moved to 447-8, a first-innings lead of 120 runs, by lunch on day three.