Head coach Matt Walker is optimistic Kent can challenge at the right end of County Championship Division 1 this summer.

They finished fifth last season, albeit they had battled relegation for much of the campaign before they finished the season with two straight wins to add some gloss to a mixed year.

It’s now 45 years since Kent last won Division 1 - finishing as runners-up in 2004 - although they claimed the Royal London One-Day Cup in 2022 and the T20 Blast a year earlier.

Walker feels his squad is now at a stage where they can compete in the higher echelons of the table and admits squad management will be key.

He said: “The squad is another year older and another year more experienced.

“We all understand the ability in the dressing room.

"Now, it’s a case of - every match we play - we’ve got to perform. We’ve got to work as a team a bit harder.

“If we do that, I think we can challenge. This is the stage we’re at. You develop a side, develop a dressing room and a culture.

“You want to improve players and give opportunities and you hope, in the end, you have a very competitive group.

“When you do that, of course, it’s a challenge to manage that. Not everyone can play all the time but everyone understands what we’re trying to do.

“We want to be a winning side and, to do that, there’s going to be some tough decisions.

“People maybe aren’t going to play as much as they would like and they might find themselves out of the team. Sometimes, it’s through no fault of their own.

“It’s a decision on which side is going to give you the best chance to win that game of cricket.

“That’s quite tough to take sometimes when you aren’t in the side, particularly when you haven’t done anything wrong, but we will need everybody.”

Kent are likely to lose batsman Zak Crawley to England duty again for parts of the summer while Walker thinks they will need to win more four-day games, having only picked up four victories in 2022. Making a better start to the campaign will also be key.

“There will be injuries and dips in forms and we’ll lose players to England, so you do need that strong squad,” he said.

“In Championship Cricket especially - if you want to win the absolute golden egg - you’re going to need everybody to be ready when their time comes.

“We’re getting a squad that can really compete against the very best in the country.

“We were a number of points off the four sides above us last year and we’ve got to get closer to them by winning more games of cricket. But I believe the squad we’ve got can do that.

“It’s a lot of hard work when you get down to the nitty-gritty of a Championship season. To win any game is hard work.

“But to win between eight and 10 is probably what it takes to win the Championship. That takes an enormous amount of hard work, but we definitely can do it with a bit of luck.

“If everyone stays fit and healthy and the players’ form generally is good, you just never know but we’ll take it one step at a time.

“Hopefully we can have a good start to the year and, if we can do that, I think that’ll give everyone a real boost because we haven’t started well enough in the last few years of Championship cricket.

“We’ve always found ourselves chasing it a bit and having to dig deep at the back-end of the year.

"But if we can start well and get a few wins on the board early, you just never know.

“Fingers crossed everything falls into place.”

Kent’s first pre-season friendly against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors’ School was abandoned this week without a ball being bowled.