Batsman Joe Denly insists he is yet to fulfil his potential and hopes to do so over the coming seasons with Kent to help force his way back into the international picture.

After three seasons at Middlesex, Denly returned to his home county in October to bolster the top order with talents which have seen him score more than 12,000 first class runs and 19,000 in total.

Denly, who turned 29 in March, revealed he was raring to go after a successful winter playing in Bangladesh for Brothers Union and then training in South
Africa.

He said: “It is nice to be returning to my home county. I had a good month out in Bangladesh playing some one-day cricket and five weeks in Durban playing one-day cricket, training in the sun and getting practice outdoors.

“It was a good experience and I am feeling good. We’ve had a couple of hits (in the nets at Canterbury), I am feeling in good touch and looking forward to getting under way.”

Since Denly’s return, another home-grown prospect has rejoined Kent in the form of Matt Coles, although his former team-mate insists he is happy to let the all-rounder ‘steal his thunder.’

Denly said: “He’s more than welcome to have that thunder. I’d quite like to go under the radar, to be honest.

“It’s good to have him back. He’ll turn out to be a good signing for Kent. He’s a talented boy and I’m looking forward to playing with him again.”

He added: “It’s good to have so many home-grown players at the club and I’m sure the club are proud of that.

“It goes to show how good an academy system we have got here and that young players get the opportunity to improve their skills from a young age.”

Denly scored just 1,800 runs in the past three seasons of top-flight Championship cricket but he has set his sights on a return to the form which saw him pass 1,000 first class runs in his final season with Kent, in 2011.

A return to that kind of form could help garner the attention of the England hierarchy, more than five years after his final international appearance of a golden six-month period which saw him play nine ODIs and five T20s for England.

He said: “I do not necessarily have any targets or number of runs I want to score but I want to contribute to winning trophies. I feel like I’ve always got a point to prove in terms of scoring runs and I don’t feel I have fulfilled my full potential.

"Hopefully, this year can be the start of many good years to come. I’d like to think the international door is still open to me.

“It’s a long way off, though, and first of all I need to establish myself back in this Kent
team.

“There is a lot of competition and hopefully I can get myself a spot and if I can produce the sort of scores I want to produce, then you never know.

“There are a lot of players who could easily bat in that top five or six. We’ll have to wait and see.

“All I can do at the minute is work hard in the nets. We have a friendly and a University game to come and to try and bang out some runs in those and put my name in the
hat.”