England spinner James Tredwell claims being left out of Kent’s Championship side brought him “down to earth” after a winter during which he was a reserve for England’s Ashes side, first-choice ODI spinner Down Under and a mainstay of the ICC World t20 line-up.

Just two weeks after his last England appearance, the 32-year-old went for 96 runs for his two wickets in the second innings of the opening LV= County Championship Division 2 game at Worcester last month with coach Jimmy Adams “deciding to give Treddy some time away from the spotlight of first-team cricket to concentrate on some technical modification” as a result.

Tredwell admitted: “I guess it was a feet on the ground moment, being involved in a World Cup over the winter, coming back and realising your game’s probably not in the place you’d like it to be in the longer form.

“You have to hit the ground again but as long as I can overcome it – and I’ve put in the hours – then, in a way, it’s a good thing, although I don’t want to be out of the side forever.

“In one-day cricket for England, my results, other than Australia, have been pretty good.

"That part of the game is going pretty nicely but there are areas I need to continue to work on in the four-day game.”

Tredwell turned out in a pre-season friendly for Kent League club side Folkestone during his exile and said the unenviable task of going from playing at the MCG to Cheriton Road was a necessary one.

He said: “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. When I was left out of the Kent team, there weren’t many 2nd team games at that time so to get match practice, Folkestone was the option."

Adam Riley claimed 14 wickets in the two Championship games following Tredwell’s departure, having taken nine in a pre-season game for Loughborough MCCU, and Tredwell admitted: “You want the best thing for the team. Riles has come off a nine-fer against Sussex and is clearly bowling well."

The first of five ODIs begin at The Oval on Thursday, before a trip to Durham on Sunday and Old Trafford next Wednesday.

Read the full interview with James Tredwell in this week's KM sports pages.