Skipper Rob Key says seven straight days of cricket in different formats will provide his squad with a tough challenge.

Kent face back-to-back T20 clashes at Hampshire on Thursday, 6.30pm and home to Middlesex (Friday, 7pm) followed the next day by the start of a home Championship game with Essex (noon).

Essex also provide the opposition for a T20 game on Wednesday (6.30pm) after the conclusion of the Championship game, making it a possible seven straight days of action.

Key admitted that it was going to be tough and when explaining that sleeping soundly after a night game was a challenge, he joked: “I can’t wait, it’s going to be great fun.”

With the differing skills required in white-ball and four-day cricket, Key added: “I enjoy the Friday night formula (of T20) – it seems to be working – but with that, there’s a bit of give and take."

Spinner Adam Riley faces, perhaps, the biggest change in style and he admitted: “It will be the ultimate test. I don’t think many of us will have ever done that but it’s one of the challenges with this new schedule.

“For me, it’s all about doing the work in the morning for that Championship game, get back to red-ball lines and lengths. If we put the hard work in, we will get our rewards. The schedule is there, we just have to get on with it.”