Calum Haggett believes competition among Kent’s seamers is fiercer than ever and he hopes that will help them bring the best out of each other.

Matt Coles, Charlie Hartley and Hugh Bernard have all gone since last season, but Kent still have on their books Haggett, Darren Stevens, Will Gidman, Mitch Claydon, Matt Hunn and Ivan Thomas, who have been joined by Matt Henry and Harry Podmore with fast bowler Adam Milne coming over for the T20.

Allrounder Haggett failed to make the starting XI for the opening two County Championship games against Gloucestershire and Durham, but says he intends being ready to make a contribution when the call comes having got over a niggle with his elbow in pre-season.

The 27-year-old, who made his Kent debut in 2013, said: “There are 18 teams and I’m sure every player wants to be in every side that they are playing for and I suppose if it doesn’t quite happen to start with you’ve got to keep working hard.

“I think the lads are prepared for the season, there’s a good unity about us so that if you’re not being selected to start with the lads will support the team.

“If we can manage that throughout the whole course of the season because it is so long it will be put us in a good place.

“The season’s so long, there’s always going to be niggles, people coming in going out so to have that competition it drives everyone forward and hopefully that can only be a good thing.”

Haggett, a former England under-19 international, has 83 First -Class wickets and 131 across all formats and over the winter he has been working on his action.

He and clubmate Thomas spent time in South Africa with assistant coach Allan Donald before Christmas and he admits that was invaluable.

He added: “You learn so much, when you’ve got someone with his credentials you just want to soak everything in really.

“I had a few things which I wanted to sort out, he set me on the right path and hopefully I’m going to reap the rewards of that. There’s still work to be done but it’s going in the right direction.”

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The left-hander averages nearly 24 from his 38 First Class matches and says he is keen for more batting opportunities even if it means becoming Kent’s regular nightwatchman.

He did his cause no harm at all last week when he scored 102 for a combined Kent/Northants team in a second XI game against Warwickshire at Beckenham.

He added: “Hopefully I can be more consistent when I’m needed. I think I might try and put my hand up for nightwatchman when that comes around.

“’Treddy’ (James Tredwell) and ‘Riles’ (Adam Riley) have done it in the past but I want to push myself as much as I can with my batting.

“I know I’m not going to get up the order very often – that could be only way so yes I’d like to hopefully contribute a bit more with the bat.”