KENT have appealed to England’s cricket chiefs in a bid to have opening batsman Rob Key released from squad duty in time to play in Wednesday’s championship clash with Nottinghamshire at Maidstone.

Off-colour and clearly out of sorts since teaming up with the England party back in May, Key has played just one innings for Kent in almost six weeks.

During his stint with team England, Key has endured a handful of lacklustre knocks in a lean spell that culminated with him being dropped for Tuesday’s rain-ruined international in Leeds.

In an effort to help his player back into some semblance of form, Kent’s director of cricket, Ian Brayshaw, has contacted England Team Operations Manager Phil Neale seeking permission to select Key for the county’s crucial four-day clash in the county town.

In explaining the county’s stance, Brayshaw said: "The circumstances are costing Rob dearly because if things remain as they are he could be asked to go into the first Test against South Africa with no real cricket under his belt for weeks

"We tried to play him in that game before the Tests against Lancashire but England wouldn’t permit it. After that they did reluctantly allow him to play in our one-day game down at Tunbridge Wells but since then he’s been sat in the dressing room.

"Rob didn’t even want to get involved in coming down to play for us at The Nevill because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"He may want to get away from the England group and have a game for us, but he doesn’t want to go to Fletcher and ask to be released, so I’ve taken that job on myself."