Nathan Gilchrist’s return from injury has to be in the limelight - but Kent won’t rush him back.

The 23-year-old paceman featured for only the second time this season during Sunday’s One Day Cup defeat to Leicestershire at Beckenham due to injury.

Not surprisingly, Gilchrist looked well short of match sharpness. But it’s a double-edged sword for Kent who want to ease him back into action but can’t offer any 2nd XI cricket at this stage of the summer.

“He's come into this game having only really bowled at batters in the last week,” said interim head coach Simon Cook after Gilchrist returned 0-65 in six overs for the Spitfires on Sunday.

“Having that game readiness is not there, having said that there’s no good entry point into this tournament for him because there is no second-team cricket going on at the moment.

“There is no time he can get game-time so our view is that he’s ready to go, let’s get him in there and ready to face the fire first up.

“Yes, there was a bit of ring rustiness there but he showed in periods he was able to execute his yorkers really well. He’s got pace, he’s got that X-factor.

“We’ve challenged him to get wickets up front and not worry about the runs and he created a couple of opportunities, and went past the bat a couple of times.

“His entry into this tournament is going to be limited anyway because of him coming back so he’s not going to play back-to-back games, more than likely he’ll be rotated out of the next game purely on his back-to-bowling programme and not necessarily on his performance that he put in today.”

One Day Cup captain Joe Denly will also miss the game at Blackpool against Lancashire today (Wednesday), although he has travelled with the squad and could return either on Friday against Surrey or two days later against Middlesex.

“Joe hit balls on Sunday but still felt some discomfort so Lancashire is probably a bit of a push,” said Cook. “He’ll travel with the squad to continue his rehab but you’re probably looking at The Oval or Middlesex.”

As for Kent’s chance of progressing from the group after a disappointing defeat to Leicestershire at the weekend, Cook knows there are plenty of chances to bounce back.

“You have a look at what we did last year, it’s almost a mirror image as we had a good performance first up against Worcester and then had a wobble for three or four games but ended up winning six or seven on the bounce to win the final,” he said.

“That’s ultimately what this competition is all about. We want to entertain the crowd and put good performances on, and that’s what we’ll be trying to do every single time.

“This tournament, in particular, throws up lots of different matches because each year you’ve got different teams on different stages, some get raided by the Hundred and some don’t, some recruit overseas.

“Leicestershire are an exceptionally strong side, Lancashire who we beat in the final are a very strong side again.

“I’d say this is very early stages in this tournament. You’ve just got to finish in the top four to get into the quarter-finals and then it’s a one-match shoot-out all the way to the final. That’s what you’ve got to keep remembering.”