by Andrew Gidley

Rob Key knows poor form cost him the chance of a regular place in England’s Twenty20 side but still harbours hopes he will get another chance.

The Kent captain (pictured right with Kevin Pietersen) continued his bad run with a first-ball duck against Essex at Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday.

It came less than 24 hours after England were knocked out of the ICC World Twenty20 Championship by the West Indies.

He sat out the other games after replacing the injured Kevin Pietersen in the shock defeat against Holland in the opening game two weeks ago.

Key, tipped as a possible captain when the original 30-man party was named, ended up carrying the drinks in the rest of the tournament. He admitted: "Bad form couldn’t have come at a worse time for me and the selectors felt I wasn’t in good enough nick.

"I will always back myself to do well on the big occasions but Luke Wright took his chance, got runs early on and there was no point in me going in at five or six.

"Had one of the openers been injured, I may have got a game but it wasn’t to be."

He added: "Everyone was disappointed to lose against the Dutch but playing in front of a packed house at Lord’s really got the heart pumping

"In hindsight though, I probably shouldn’t have played in that game because it left ourselves short bowling.

"We learn’t from that and adjusted pretty well and came up with a better formula for winning games but didn’t get it right at the crucial time."