Skipper James Tredwell accepts Kent’s policy of picking youngsters means they may not win as many games as they would like but insists they are not throwing away their season.

The Spitfires opted to give Sam Billings, 22, his first game with the gloves in place of Geraint Jones during the defeat against Middlesex in the Friends Life t20 on Friday while, on Sunday, Adam Riley, 21, opened the bowling in only his seventh t20 game.

Fabian Cowdrey, 20, and Daniel Bell-Drummond, 19, are under consideration as Kent face three games in four days with the county keen to give their young players experience for the future.

The in-form pair played in Kent’s t20 warm-up against New Zealand two weeks ago and put on a partnership of 220 for the 2nds against Somerset at The Mote on Tuesday. Tredwell’s side host Essex at Canterbury tomorrow (Friday, 7pm), followed by trips to Middlesex on Sunday (3pm) and Essex on Monday (7pm).

Although he admitted he felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders after losses to Middlesex and Surrey, Tredwell insisted Kent were looking long-term by fielding inexperienced sides while the likes of Jones, 36, and Mark Davies, 32, miss out.

He said: “We are a club in a bit of transition. We have got some decent young cricketers and want to progress them as best we can.

“The younger players have shown they are progressing. It may mean we don’t win as many games as we’d like but they are going to get their chances and will put in performances.

“We’re trying to build something here. There’s going to be a little bit of inexperience.
“We need to keep learning from games like Sunday, playing against the likes of Ricky Ponting – if they don’t learn from those people, that’s probably more of a worry than the result. Hopefully, even over the course of this competition, we’ll see improvements and will get some results.”