THOUGH vaunted as one of one of the most promising batsmen amongst the most recent crop of England Under-19 players Kent’s Joe Denly has seemingly found the step up from schoolboy cricket to the county first team a giant stride.

In his two previous first-class appearances against Gloucestershire and Oxford University Denly adopted the appearance of a startled rabbit in mustering an aggregate of 14 runs in three innings.

But if recent signs and his brace of centuries against Cambridge University are anything to go by, the 20-year-old from Whitstable is maturing nicely and preparing for that big step up.

Denly said: "Since coming back from Australia in the winter I’ve just wanted to bat and bat, not worry about accumulating runs because they appear to be coming quite naturally at the moment, but to make sure I spend time in the middle.

"I’ve become more of an attacking player now. I’m prepared to take it to the bowler rather than just wait for bad balls and that paid dividends in Australia and now here."

The other facet of Denly’s game to develop Down Under is his leg-spin bowling, which will have caught the eye of Kent skipper Rob Key and director of coaching Graham Ford.

He took three wickets in testing conditions against the students, a performance that may yet see him considered as a bowling all-rounder in Kent’s one-day squad.

He added: "I bowl with quite a tall action, more like Anil Kumble rather than Shane Warne. I get the odd one to skid on and that can surprise a few batsmen.

"With bowling in my armoury as well as my batting and fielding I hope it will give me a greater chance of forcing my way into the one-day set up.

"Then it’s just a case of taking my chances when they do come."