Skipper Sam Northeast has welcomed the sense of expectation surrounding Kent as they prepare to venture into their third competition of the season this weekend.

The Spitfires begin their Royal London One-Day Cup campaign against Surrey at Beckenham on Sunday (11am), having visited Hampshire in the NatWest T20 Blast tonight (Thursday) and hosted Gloucestershire, again at Beckenham, tomorrow (Friday) seeking to build on their winning start to the shortest format against Somerset.

Kent went out in the quarter-finals of both competitions last season but began the white-ball season with a stunning win at Canterbury and are also riding high in Specsavers County Championship Division 2, despite this week’s washed-out draw with Leicestershire at Canterbury.

Despite the complications surrounding switching from red-ball to white and from 20 to 50 overs and back so quickly, Northeast said: “It was the same last year. We just have to get on with it.

“We go into these games with confidence, spirits are high. We want to build on that win against Somerset. We want to make a good start in both competitions. It’s a busy period, we just have to get through it as best we can.

“We might see a little bit of rotation but we want to put out our best side in all our games.” He added: “Someone asked me about competing for the treble the other day. That level of expectation is a good thing.

“Of course we want to aim to win all three competitions we are in. We have a big squad and players capable of coming in and putting in performances.

“We are up against some good sides in all the formats but we are a good side, too. The first target is always to get out of the group, make it to the quarter-finals and hopefully this year go even further.”

Sam Billings is back in the fold after England and IPL duty and will seek to continue the 50-over form which saw him score 271 runs in seven knocks in last year’s ODC and 458 the previous year at an average of 115.

Northeast added: “It’s been tough for him – he’s probably not had as much game-time as he’d have liked but I’m sure he is raring to go. It’s nice to have him back and hopefully we will see a lot of runs from him.”

Northeast, who hit 96 from 47 balls to lead Kent to a 23-run T20 win over Surrey at Beckenham last year, added: “We beat them up there in the T20 then so we have a bit of form there.

“They have been struggling a bit in the Championship and hopefully there might be a bit of a lack of confidence there.”

Kent return to T20 action on Wednesday when they host Hampshire at Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence Ground (6.30pm).