Kent head coach Matt Walker refuses to set specific goals for his team with 2024 season upon the horizon

Kent head coach Matt Walker reckons there is a freshness to the squad ahead of the new season - but won’t set the side any specific targets.

Having narrowly avoided relegation on the final day, Walker’s team will again play red-ball cricket in County Championship Division 1 and begin their season against Somerset at Canterbury’s Spitfire Ground from tomorrow.

There have been plenty of changes at Kent over this winter.

Simon Cook has started as director of cricket, batsman Daniel Bell-Drummond is their new captain and bowlers Matt Parkinson, Michael Cohen and George Garrett have been added to the squad, as well as overseas Australian quick bowlers Wes Agar and Xavier Bartlett for the first half of the summer.

Spitfires had enjoyed recent success in both one-day competitions, although they didn’t fare so well last year.

“It’s about being as competitive as we possibly can,” said Walker. “Last year, it was a bit of a challenge around that, with the make-up of some of the teams that we had to put out on the field.

“There was the introduction of a couple of young players but some challenging periods without our best team on the park, which can happen.

“But the squad we have built now - with Cooky coming in as director of cricket, Daniel as captain and two new support coaches (Toby Radford and Robbie Joseph) - there’s a sense of freshness. There’s a real sense of anticipation around the group.

“We have brought in three new domestic players, plus Jaydn (Denly) who is a young player, coming on the staff. I think we feel well-set and we have got a squad that can really compete and put ourselves in positions to challenge in games.

“It was quite hard to do that last year at times. We had to almost think on our feet a bit and just