Kent head coach Adam Hollioake is urging his squad to stay upbeat - ahead of a daunting turnaround.

Hollioake’s team will face Lancashire in County Championship Division 2 as they temporarily return to red-ball action from today.

With Kent playing in the T20 Blast on Friday night before they almost instantly return to action in Blackpool - more than 300 miles away - it’s easy to see why preparations for the County Championship game aren’t exactly ideal!

But Hollioake was philosophical about the rapid turnaround and wants his players, who get to play cricket professionally, to look at the bigger picture.

Speaking after Kent’s televised seven-wicket defeat to Gloucestershire on Wednesday, Hollioake said: “We play a late game on Friday night at Chelmsford and will probably get back here at about 1am by the time the bus has got us back.

“Then, the bus is due to pick us up the next morning at 10am to take us to Blackpool, which is a seven-hour or eight-hour drive on a coach because the coach driver has to stop. We’ll get to sleep and then wake up the next morning and play a four-day game.

“It’s not ideal - but that’s the way the fixtures are. We were lucky that we had three four-day games, then we had our bye and then we had four more games. Some sides had seven on the spin so I think, at some stage, this itinerary just gets you.

“We have to keep our chins up and be thankful that we’re fortunate enough to be professional cricketers and not focus on the fact that’s a tough bit of travelling and transitioning from T20s to four-day cricket.”

Kent and Lancashire, both relegated from County Championship Division 1 last year, had been tipped among the pre-season promotion favourites.

Instead, they find themselves in the bottom two despite Lancashire having Australian overseas international Marcus Harris and England internationals Keaton Jennings and Tom Hartley among their ranks. Legendary ex-England seam bowler Jimmy Anderson will captain Lancashire against Kent, too.

On Lancashire’s poor form, which led to the departure of South African Dale Benkenstein as head coach last month, Hollioake said: “It’s surprising because I think they have got one of the biggest playing budgets.

“There’s some big-price players they have got. We’re not fortunate enough to have that.

“But we have got to put our best foot forward there because we haven’t played well in the competition so far this year.”

Opening batsman Ben Compton will return to Kent’s red-ball squad for their match against Lancashire.

Kent squad: Bell-Drummond, Agar, Compton, Jaydn Denly, Joe Denly, Evison, Finch, Garrett, Ali, Leaning, Parkinson, Muyeye, Singh, Stewart.