The new t20 season starts this week and hopefully it will be prove significant and refreshing to go out and express ourselves in a new format.

Playing back-to-back four-day games regularly can mean you get stale. We are all hoping we have a really good campaign. I have only played a handful of t20 games so far for Kent, but really enjoy the format.

When I was in Sydney during the winter, I played for my club team and we won the grade tournament, and hopefully I am coming to terms with how to play the format.

It will be tough going into the competition with one overseas player as most teams have two, including last season’s beaten finalists, Somerset, who are up first for us at Tunbridge Wells on Friday. They are missing Kieron Pollard who is on Test duty with the West Indies, but this week signed South African all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe for the first half of their campaign, and they also have Murali Kartik.

We then face defending champions Hampshire Royals, who beat Somerset at The Rose Bowl on Wednesday in the first match of this season’s tournament, live on Sky, which provided us with a few pointers about the make-up of both teams before we play them.

We will be underdogs in most games, but that is not always the worst position to be in, and means we can go and play without fear.

Ashley Shaw (pictured) bowled incredibly well with the swinging ball on day two against Derbyshire at Canterbury last week to pick up a five-wicket haul on debut, the first player to do that since Murali.

We were all shocked to hear that Dewald Nel has been released. We were excited to see his great performance at Headingley last season, six wickets in the first innings against Yorkshire – and nine in the match.

I wish him well in the future. At the moment I am trying to grab his bats as he produced some absolute belters this year – why do the tailenders get the best bats?

It’s been good to have both Mark Ealham and Alan Wells helping out on the coaching side.

Ealy is now working at King’s School in Canterbury and has been with us since the start of the season, while Alan Wells joined us in the build-up to the Leicestershire game at Tunbridge Wells.

I think all the guys in the squad have really enjoyed have two former players, who only recently left the game, back in the fold to share their experiences.

Even if it does go as far as telling stories about fielding with a shirt and tie on under their cricket whites in a 2nd XI game!