Lewis McManus says Northants need to 'hit the ground running'

Northants wicket-keeper and vice-captain Lewis McManus

The County kick off their red ball season on Thursday (start 11am) when they travel to Canterbury to take on Kent.

It is the first of six four-day matches in a testing opening seven weeks of the summer, and McManus, who is now vice-captain to new skipper Luke Procter at Wantage Road, knows how important it is the team clicks into action straight away.

"It is a tough start, and you are straight in at the deep end in four-day cricket," said the former Hampshire man.

"The lads will be confident because we played well last year at Kent, and we managed to turn them over at their place (Northants won by 203 runs, claiming the final wicket with 10 minutes to spare).

"It was not a straightforward game of four-day cricket, but we stuck to it and came away on the right side at the end.

"So we will be full of confidence going into that match and it is just a matter of trying to hit the ground running as quickly as we can."

The County go into the game off the back of two two-day pre-season friendly encounters against Worcestershire and Leicestershire, and then last weekend's comprehensive two-day win over Oxford UCCE.

The March and early April rains have affected those fixtures, but McManus says the County are as well prepared as they can be, particularly as they also enjoyed a two-week pre-season trip to Cape Town in South Africa.

"It will have been the same for most teams, but there has been a lot of weather about and pre-season days have been cancelled and stuff," said the 28-year-old.

"But getting on front foot in this block of games is going to be really important.

"It is easy to think 'oh, we've had a couple of days washed out', but I think other teams will have come off a little bit worse than us, so it has been good.

"We had a great trip to South Africa, where some of the lads coming back from injuries got time in the field in their legs, and the batters got to hit some balls outside.

"Actually getting time in the middle is invaluable, and we have done that."