Jordan Cox

Jordan Cox is an effervescent cricketer who nevertheless gained a reputation for bad luck, as his burgeoning England career was derailed by inopportune injuries. He was first capped in T20Is in 2024, having toured Pakistan two years earlier without winning a debut, and played ODIs in the Caribbean shortly after - but an expected Test bow in New Zealand failed to materialise after he broke a thumb while batting in the nets.

Cox had been due to deputise for Jamie Smith behind the stumps but instead flew home early. When he was then included in England's squad to play Zimbabwe in a one-off Test at the start of the 2025 summer, he promptly suffered a side injury while batting for Essex and had to withdraw. He finished the English season in better spirits, however, leading the run-scoring charts in the men's Hundred as Oval Invincibles claimed a third successive title, and notching a maiden international fifty in Dublin. He was later named PCA Player of the Year.

An aggressive T20 hitter with a first-class average in the 40s, Cox is almost as well known for his fielding skills - notably helping to pull off a spectacular relay catch as Kent won the final of the 2021 T20 Blast. Having struck 58 not out off 28, he sealed his player-of-the-match performance with a moment of magic in the field, jumping beyond the boundary rope after sprinting round from deep midwicket before parrying the ball back into play in mid-air.

Cox, who was educated at Felsted School in Essex, had been on the books at Kent since he was 10. He made his first-class, List A and T20 debuts in 2019, and featured regularly in the Blast in his early years. He became a key member of the England Under-19s, making hundreds against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but underwhelmed at the junior World Cup in 2020.

Later that year he was involved in one of the more bizarre disciplinary breaches. After scoring his maiden first-class hundred, a mammoth 238 not out as an opener, he was forced to self-isolate after breaching Kent's strict Covid-19 protocols by posing for a photograph with fans. The following summer was tougher in red-ball cricket as Kent struggled in the Championship but Cox made four half-centuries opening the batting, and his form in the Blast earned him a deal with Oval Invincibles in the Hundred.

His Australian passport also allowed him to play grade cricket in Sydney, but he was soon in demand on the global T20 circuit, making appearances in the Big Bash, LPL, SA20, ILT20 and PSL.

Cox moved to Essex in 2024 and piled up 918 runs in the County Championship (nearly mirroring his 917 for Kent two seasons before). He also won his second Hundred title with Oval Invincibles, and his white-ball consistency earned him his first England caps later that year.