Seam bowler Harry Podmore insists he is relishing the prospect of starting Kent's 2020 season against reigning county champions Essex.

Former Middlesex man Podmore made a fine start to day two of his county's two-day practice match against the Eagles in Canterbury, as he dismissed both Nick Browne and Sir Alastair Cook cheaply.

He managed to get through 11 overs on Tuesday and finished with figures of 2-41 while Matt Milnes, the pick of Kent's bowlers, took 2-7 from his 10 overs.

The same two teams will meet again at the County Ground, Chelmsford on Saturday, as they get their shortened 2020 domestic campaign under way in the Bob Willis Trophy.

It's a tough start to competitive action for Kent but 26-year-old Podmore says he wants to test himself against the best.

He said: "I think you always want to play against the best, don’t you?

"That’s only really when you know where you are at yourself and where you are as a team.

"To have a practice game against, at the moment, the best team in the country after they won two competitions last year, and getting another crack at them on Saturday, it’s a good test to see where we are at."

The Bob Willis Trophy, a one-off red-ball competition, replaces the County Championship for the 2020 season - after 10 rounds of matches were lost due to lockdown after the coronavirus pandemic - but matches will hold full first-class status.

Kent are in a six-team regionalised south group, with the two best group winners from the three regionalised groups going onto compete in a five-day final of the trophy at Lord's.

Podmore would love to help his side reach that final.

He said: "I think, when you play in any final, it’s exciting.

"A final at Lord’s would be really exciting.

"Lord’s is always an exciting place to play, and it definitely does spur people on that little bit more."

It has, of course, been a disjointed close-season ahead of the English cricket season after lockdown due to covid-19, and all matches at present are being played behind closed doors.

Podmore says most bowlers will not yet be fully fit but he is just grateful to be back playing competitively again.

"There’s no getting away from the fact that a lot of the bowlers will be rusty," he said.

"It’s the same for the batters.

"But everyone else is in the exact same position as you, there are no anomalies in there.

"Obviously it’s not an ideal situation. But the bowlers have been back a little bit longer than the batters.

"We can only deal with what we have got at the time, and we are just grateful to be back playing some sort of cricket.

"So I think to moan would be slightly ungrateful."

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