HEADINGLEY — Out of the hundreds of cricketers I have interviewed over the years, there are few who have been as self-assured or confident as Jordan Cox.
I first met him after he’d signed for Essex at the club’s pre-season media day in April 2024. They say there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and Cox traversed it perilously.
Yet back then you were left in no doubt that he felt destined to play international cricket.
Two years earlier he had been called up by England at the age of 21 for a T20 tour of Pakistan. He did not play and it was the first of several near misses for a player who can count himself unlucky his chance did not come sooner.
Seven months after our meeting in Chelmsford, Cox was set for his Test debut in New Zealand, filling in as wicketkeeper for Jamie Smith, who had decided to miss the tour to be at the birth of his first child.
On an overcast Sunday morning in Queenstown before the final day of England’s warm-up game against a Prime Minister’s XI, I sat in a Portakabin with a couple of other UK journalists interviewing coach Brendon McCullum.
Jordan Cox reacts to reaching his half century (Photo: Getty)The architect of Bazball was gushing about Cox and how he was the perfect fit for his team. Although he had only made 11 in the first innings of this tour match, there were high hopes for Cox in the series to come.
Seconds after we switched our tape recorders off, England’s media manager told us that while we’d been speaking to McCullum, Cox has broken a thumb batting in the nets. He was out of the tour.
Ollie Pope was instead the fill-in keeper for the series and Jacob Bethell was given a surprise debut at No3.
You know the rest, but it was perhaps a story coming full circle when Cox got his opportunity to bat three in this Test series against Pakistan after Bethell was ruled out with a knee injury.
That Test debut did eventually come for Cox back in June when he was ostensibly the replacement for Ben Stokes against New Zealand at The Oval after the then-captain’s late-night occupation of the Rex Rooms saw him suspended pending an England & Wales Cricket Board investigation.
Batting at No 7, he looked good in flashes during knocks of 27 and 25 in a match that was completely overshadowed by the Stokes saga and ended with England being hammered by 253 runs.
But on the second day of this opening Test against Pakistan, Cox properly announced himself with a maiden half-century at this level. Eventually out for 73 after edging spinner Ali Usman behind, Cox will be kicking himself he passed up the chance of a century.
And although this Pakistan bowling attack is one of the poorest to have hit these shores in many years, Cox, now 25, looked every inch the international player he is, even if he was lucky to survive on 57 when Khurram Shahzad dropped a simple caught and bowled chance.
The Essex batter’s 150-run stand with captain Joe Root set this match up for England, with the hosts’ leading by 27 by the time Cox departed. By stumps, thanks to further half-centuries from Root, Harry Brook and Dan Lawrence, that lead had stretched to 195.
50 up for both Jordan Cox and Joe Root pic.twitter.com/VbXD0jVQx6
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) August 20, 2026Although he may be filling in for this series, don’t rule Cox out of remaining in England’s XI beyond it. With opener Emilio Gay looking like he has some glaring technical issues in the early days of his Test career, Cox has the opportunity now to properly establish himself ahead of the winter tours of South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia.
Don’t write him off opening the batting come next summer’s Ashes either, with Cox having previously been employed at the top of the order for Kent before his move to Essex two summers ago.
Bethell, when he’s back from injury, might also be a contender for that opening spot if Gay doesn’t prove to be a long-term pick. Then, though, England can just keep Cox where he is in this series.
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He’s certainly some talent, with his innings of 204 in 201 balls for Essex against Leicestershire in June seeing him picked by England for that Oval Test against New Zealand. Indeed, his average in first-class cricket since swapping Kent for Chelmsford is 68.
A spell with Royal Challengers Bangalore in this year’s Indian Premier League saw him strike up a friendship with Virat Kohli, who he sought the counsel of before that Test debut at The Oval.
And a player whose destructive hitting at the crease has seen him likened to South African great AB De Villiers, looks destined to carry on rubbing shoulders with the game’s elite for the foreseeable future.
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