‘I’ll bat anywhere for England’: in-form Jordan Cox confident of making the step up

Jordan Cox’s timing has been off. Not with the bat – it’s pinged off the middle for some time. The 24-year-old has averaged more than 60 in the County Championship since joining Essex from Kent two years ago, and he has serious white-ball pedigree. He meets the Spin at the Oval four days after his unbeaten 29-ball 86 in the Hundred on this ground. “It’s the best place in the world to play cricket,” he says.

No, the luck hasn’t gone his way with England. Cox was readying himself for a Test debut in New Zealand last November, penned in as the keeper-bat while Jamie Smith took paternity leave for the three-match series. But days out from the first Test, the stand-in broke his thumb while batting in the nets. It was a moment on which careers can turn. In came Jacob Bethell as Ollie Pope moved down the order, the former establishing himself as English cricket’s Next Big Thing. Cox had to wrestle with a dream snatched at the last, heal up and make his case once again.

“The winter was definitely a big step back,” says Cox. “But I’ve spoken to a lot of people just talking about how it must have happened for a reason. I keep telling myself that I clearly wasn’t ready for Test cricket yet. And that was someone telling me that if I do get an opportunity, I’ll be ready for it then.”

But the misfortune didn’t stop there. Included in the Test squad to face Zimbabwe in May, Cox had to pull out after sustaining an abdominal injury while making a hundred for Essex. How did it feel this time round?

“Absolutely fine,” he says. “Unless someone got injured, I wasn’t going to play. So it wasn’t really upsetting for me.” He offers a slight correction. “But it was because I love to be around the group and I love to hit them well in the nets, show the boys I’ll put them first and all that sort of stuff, which coaches love, and players love to see other people help out. I was upset I couldn’t do that for the lads. But it was also: ‘OK, when can I get back fit and when can I start scoring runs again to put my name back up on that pedestal?’”

Cox repeats his desire to “bash the door down” with runs, a cliched mantra but one, to be fair, he is following. Matt Walker, once his head coach at Kent, is an assistant coach at the Oval Invincibles where Cox is the leading run-scorer in this year’s Hundred.

“There is just an unwavering confidence about him,” says Walker. “I think he believes he’s the best player whenever he takes the field. It’s not in an outwardly arrogant way. Sometimes with players that have a front, a bit of a swagger or some sort of arrogance to them, it can be masking some insecurities. I don’t think that is the case with Jordan, I think there has always been this complete confidence in his game.”

Walker says that behind the self-belief is a “smart-thinking cricketer”. Which takes us to that 86 against Welsh Fire, 10 sixes included, scoops to go with the power over midwicket. It was notable how he shuffled around in his crease, jumping wide of off-stump to shovel his Essex teammate Paul Walter’s medium pace into the crowd. Having kept wicket to Walter in the T20 Blast, Cox knew what was coming.

“When I play with people I’m always trying to see what they do, what their go-to ball is under pressure, all that sort of stuff. If I then do get an opportunity to play against them, I’m like one step ahead.

“I do a bit of work with Lou and Freddie [analysts at the Invincibles], just to talk about the percentages of how many times they’re going to hit the stumps in 20 balls. For example, Paulie there, he was one in 20. So it was like: ‘OK, if he bowls me, then that’s that one ball in 20. So take the risk of moving around the crease.’ He’s 6ft 9in, or whatever he is [6ft 7in, according to Essex], so not many are going to hit the stumps anyway.”

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View image in fullscreen Jordan Cox in action for England in Barbados last year, when he had a tough international baptism. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Cox remains limited to only five England caps: two Twenty20s against Australia last September, with three one-day internationals away to the West Indies in October and November. He returned a high score of 17 across five innings, a less than ideal start at the top level. Cox says he didn’t feel ready for the ODIs having barely played in the buildup; he was a squad member on the Test tour of Pakistan that preceded the series. “It was tough, but unfortunately that’s international cricket. I missed my opportunity there.”

Walker was on that tour of the Caribbean as part of England’s coaching staff. “He got caught out a couple of times with a short ball early on in his innings but he looks like he’s worked really hard at it,” Walker says. “He’s definitely added it to his practice, being a bit more diligent around the short ball.” Walker sees a player who has expanded his leg-side game and is “putting pressure on that England squad”.

Nonetheless, Cox remains on the outer, excluded from the white-ball group to face South Africa and Ireland in September. Breaking into a Test middle order featuring Joe Root, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes adds to the challenge.

“If you’ve got the No 1 and 2 Test batsmen in the world, I can’t imagine I’m going to squeeze them apart,” Cox says. “If they went: ‘Jordan, Ashes series, good luck, you’re opening.’ I’ll be like: ‘Sweet, take that on.’ I’m not going to say: ‘Oh, I don’t think that’s for me.’ It’s an England game. If they want me to bat 10, I’ll bat 10. If they want me to open, I’ll open. I’ll bat absolutely anywhere for England, and I always will.”

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