KENT skipper Rob Key is still aiming to be on the plane that takes England to Australia this November, despite being overlooked for a 25-man development squad.

Key, who finished fourth in the England batting averages on his last tour Down Under, is refusing to read much into the decision, preferring to concentrate on his new job for the county.

He said: "England have Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan as centrally contracted openers so it was always going to be hard for me to make this squad.

"The chairman of selectors David Graveney left a message on my phone telling me not to worry about it too much and, as the press have reported, we know it’s not a closed shop.

"The selectors have been good to me to be fair, they’ve spoken to me a lot and told me that I’m still in their thoughts and that showed when they made me captain of the A side against Sri Lanka.

"I was in the development squad last year and to be fair, I’m not sure what it’s meant to achieve, so I’ll just get on with scoring a few more runs and seeing what comes of it."

Key has enjoyed a reasonably consistent start to the season and, though results have not gone his way, he is clearly excited about the captaincy and the prospects for his side.

He added: "I had two bad games at the start, but since then I’ve scored 60 on a bad deck, and 80 and a 70 in my last three knocks.

"Sure, I haven’t scored the weight of runs I would have liked but I’m not that far down the pecking order, either. So I know if I have a good summer for Kent I won’t be too far off the pace come November and in no way have I written off my international career."