The sky’s the limit for Kent’s exciting crop of young batters, according to the latest addition to their coaching staff.

Former Essex captain and Netherlands international Ryan ten Doeschate has joined Kent after retiring as a player at the end of the 2021 campaign.

“There’s unlimited potential in the team - certainly with the batters,” said new batting coach ten Doeschate, who will return to Chelmsford for Kent’s County Championship Division 1 opener this Thursday.

“You have got two ends of the spectrum - Joe (Denly), Darren Stevens and even Deebz (Daniel Bell-Drummond) who have been around forever. Then you have some really exciting young players.

“Coxy (Jordan Cox), Tawanda (Muyeye) and Robbo (Ollie Robinson) is still a fairly young player.

"I think that’s where I can have the biggest impact in this job.”

The move sees ten Doeschate work with Kent head coach Matt Walker once again, the pair having previously played alongside each other at Essex.

Explaining the move, ten Doeschate said: “There was a chance to get into a set-up and work with an exciting group of batters. Obviously, I’m familiar with the players here.

• Highly-rated Kent batter aiming to enjoy the moment

• Downton: South African all-rounder can deliver the goods

• Kent announce captaincy structure

“I thought there was a chance to make an impact as well as the chance to work with Matt - someone I played with.

"I see a lot of similarities between the two counties so, hopefully, I can bring a bit of the good things from Chelmsford and influence the players."

He spent nearly 20 years at Essex but ten Doeschate didn’t hesitate when the opportunity to join Kent’s coaching staff came around.

The 41-year-old explained: “It wasn’t a difficult decision at all. I think that you don’t have that football rivalry - where it’s ‘the enemy’.

“The chance to get into the system and really affect peoples’ careers or how they go about the sport was more important than going to a franchise model or something like that.

“I wanted something a bit more permanent, and somewhere where you can drip your information across and really build relationships.

“That’s what I really like about coaching.”

Kent will be out to defend their T20 Blast crown this summer, although first they will be aiming to acclimatise as they return to Division 1 of the County Championships.

"Managing resources is tough in County Championship,” ten Doeschate admitted.

“It’s full-on and you generally find that, when you move resources from one area to another, one of the (other) areas suffers. I know there is a desire here not to let the T20 stuff slip so it means more workload, and quickly switching between the formats.

“But certainly the build-up has all been centred around red-ball cricket.

“Hopefully we can make the mental shift as well to get the guys really focused on the red-ball stuff.”

Ten Doeschate thinks he has settled in well at The Spitfire Ground but knows there is still a long way to go as he looks to build stronger bonds with the players.

He stated: “It was nice having that big block inside where you spend time on tasks with the players and really get to know them, but there’s still a long way to go.

“I’m only three months into the job and these relationships take quite a while to forge, which allow you to build trust and have an impact on the players and how they’re playing their cricket.”

In 2009, ten Doeschate was part of the Netherlands side which stunned England, winning by four wickets at Lord's in the T20 World Cup.