Despite suffering championship relegation on the final day of the domestic season, four Kent cricketers have been included in the ECB's England Performance Programme this winter and their forthcoming tour of India.

Kent captain Rob Key will skipper the 15-man party that leaves England on Friday, November 21, which will also include county team-mates Joe Denly and pace duo Amjad Khan and Robbie Joseph, who have both won British citizenship in the past two seasons.

Key said: "I'm an old hand at these performance programme tours now, but on this one it'll be nice to go out to bat out with Joe, who has already been to India with the Lions.

"It's nice too that the selectors have recognised that we've got some good pace bowlers here at Kent with Amjad Khan and Robbie Joseph as our young bowling attack.

"It's exciting for Kent fans to see those two develop but people seem to have forgotten that this is Joseph's first full year opening the bowling in first-class cricket.

"He's done unbelievably well. It's just unfortunate that if you look back on he last couple of weeks of the season he's not been at his best.

"But I maintain he's got a serious future and great potential. He's not the finished article yet but he's got enough pace and bounce, even on dead surfaces, to worry batsmen and I think he'll go even further."

ECB Performance Director David Parsons said: "This winter's programme, both at the National Cricket Performance Centre and on tour in India, is designed to help us identify those players who can perform successfully for England at international level.

"Touring India will provide the players with an opportunity to learn more about the challenges of playing on the sub-continent as well as providing our Test and One-Day squads with stand-by players in case of injury."

England Performance Programme Squad: Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Mark Davies (Durham), Steven Davies (Worcestershire), Joe Denly (Kent), Robbie Joseph (Kent), Robert Key (Kent), Amjad Khan (Kent), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Stephen Moore (Worcestershire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ollie Rayner (Sussex), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire).

England Performance Programme Schedule: Friday, November 21: Depart UK for Bangalore. Saturday, November 22 - November 29: Training/Match Preparation. Sunday, November 30: Three-day match in Bangalore. Wednesday, December 3: Travel to Mumbai. Thursday, December 4 - Wednesday, December 10: Training/Match Preparation in Mumbai. Thursday, December 11 - Sunday, December 14: Four-day match in Mumbai. Monday, December 15 - Tuesday 16: Rest and training. Wednesday, December 17 - Thursday 18: Training with England Test squad. Friday, December 19: Return to UK.