This summer’s improved one-day pitches at St Lawrence left Kent skipper Rob Key facing batting and bowling quandaries ahead of Spitfires' Friends Provident Trophy quarter-final clash with Somerset on Wednesday.

The West Country visitors are something of an ‘unknown quantity’ to Key in the 50-over format which, together with Canterbury’s superior batting surfaces, leave him with some points to ponder going into the tie.

Though Somerset stole a 20-run championship win over Kent in Tunbridge Wells 11 days ago, these sides have only met once in almost six summers in the 50-over game.

At least Key selects from a full-strength squad, meaning his one-day specialist bowlers Yasir Arafat and Simon Cook will play instead of younger guns Robbie Joseph and Amjad Khan.

Despite the likelihood of cloud cover around and only one specialist spinner to select from in James Tredwell, Key resists going in with an all-seam attack. Though Tredwell has bowled just 121 overs in all first team cricket so far this summer he is considered an integral player despite a dip in form and confidence.

Looking ahead to the televised tie at Canterbury, which starts at 12.10pm, Key said: “Somerset have certain players who can hurt any side; Trescothick, Langer and Blackwell with the bat and the likes of Willoughby and Thomas with the ball.

“They’re also a bit of an unknown quantity for us because we’ve only played them once over that distance (50 overs) in recent years and that was when Tres (Trescothick) took 158 off us two years ago and batted us out of the game at Canterbury."

Though happy to have home advantage for the tie, Key says that the excellence of the St Lawrence pitches so far this summer make it doubly difficult to know what a good score is at Canterbury.

Openly critical of the limited overs’ surfaces last year, Key has been equally quick to praise head groundsman Mike Grantham and his team. They have changed methods of pitch preparation and are using a new type of grass seed, all of which seems to have produced more runs in one-day cricket.

Key added: “Fair play to Mike, he’s turned things around so far and the improved pitches have changed the dynamic of one-day cricket on the ground.

“What with short boundaries, change of ball, powerplays and with good pitches too, it makes it harder to know just what is defendable.

“Take the Surrey game for instance with 650 runs in the day. We got almost 340 but it still went down to almost the last ball of the day.

“So whatever we score, I’ll have to keep my wits about me."

Admission to the game is free from members, tickets are otherwise priced at £15 for adults, £12 concessions and £8 for children. Coverage will be live on Sky Sports 1 from noon.

Thursday has been set aside as a reserve day should there be poor weather around and, under new regulations, a minimum of 20 overs now have to be bowled to constitute a game.

Kent (from): Key, Denly, Van Jaarsveld, Kemp, Stevens, Jones, Mahmood, Arafat, McLaren, Tredwell, Cook. 12th man: Dexter.