Jordan Cox has finally received the call he has been chasing. The 24-year-old batter, fresh from being named Player of the Tournament in this year’s Men’s Hundred, has been added to England’s T20 squad for the three-match series in Ireland later this month.
Cox’s numbers in the competition speak loudly enough: 367 runs, an average of 61.16 and a strike rate brushing 174. Oval Invincibles lifted the trophy for a third straight season, Cox contributing a controlled 40 off 28 balls in Sunday’s 26-run win over Trent Rockets at Lord’s.
Speaking after the final, he summed up his approach simply: “bang the England door down”. It has been a stop-start year for him, featuring a broken thumb that scuppered a possible Test debut in New Zealand and a side strain picked up while scoring a century for Essex.
His international résumé remains modest—two T20Is against Australia last September (17 and 0) and three ODIs in the Caribbean soon after. This recall places him in what is effectively a developmental squad led by Jacob Bethell, with fixtures in Dublin on 17, 19 and 21 September.
The original 14-man party looked light on specialist batting, and there were suggestions a bowling all-rounder might appear at No. 6. Cox’s inclusion offers a more conventional option and, the selectors hope, extra firepower.
The announcement follows England’s 50-over side being dismissed for 131 at Headingley in a seven-wicket defeat to South Africa—a timely reminder that batting depth remains under scrutiny.
