A club has hailed an ex-Kent cricketer as “one of our own” as he prepares to make his England Test debut.
Jordan Cox, 25, is one of two players confirmed to make their England Test debuts as head coach Brendon McCullum’s face New Zealand at The Oval from tomorrow.
Surrey bowler Matthew Fisher will also play his second Test – more than four years after his first – while fast bowler Jofra Archer returns for the first time this summer amid the chaos caused by injuries and the incident involving skipper Ben Stokes and bowler Gus Atkinson in a nightclub last week that has seen the duo axed.
Margate-born batsman Cox’s Test debut is long-awaited. He was expected to have played in New Zealand in 2024 but broke his thumb in the build-up.
He missed the start of the English season because of the Indian Premier League but scored 204 from 201 balls for Essex against Leicestershire in a six-wicket County Championship Division 1 win last weekend.
McCullum said Cox had been preferred at No.7 in Stokes’ absence because of his “power and his rounded game” while Somerset’s James Rew is viewed as a top-six batter.
Cox, who came through Kent’s academy set-up before he left for Essex in 2023, had played his club cricket at Sandwich Town in his formative years, helping Sandwich to a fifth-placed Kent League Premier Division finish in 2018.
“Here’s to one of our own,” the Kent League Championship club posted on social media. “Congratulations to Jordan Cox for being picked to play for England in the second Test against New Zealand.
“From The Butts all the way to the international stage, everyone at Sandwich Town Cricket Club is really proud of you. A fantastic achievement – and thoroughly deserved.
“Best of luck, Jordan.”
While it will be a bow for him in the longer format, Cox, who first really took the limelight as he helped Kent Spitfires win the Vitality T20 Blast in 2021, already has plenty of white-ball experience.
He made his international T20 debut against Australia in September 2024 and his One-Day International bow two months later against the West Indies.
Cox has also played franchise cricket in the Indian Premier League, the Australian Big Bash League, the Lanka Premier League in Sri Lanka, the SA20 tournament and the International T20 League in the United Arabs Emirates, as well as The Hundred competition on home soil.
In the four confirmed changes to England’s side from the team that beat New Zealand by 115 runs at Lord’s earlier this month, Margate-born Sussex seam bowler Ollie Robinson – who claimed seven wickets on a remarkable return to Test cricket – is out with soreness in his right knee while Baker comes in for Shoaib Bashir, with England opting against picking a spinner.
There could be a fifth change from the first Test, with Rew, who would be a third debutant in the XI, on standby to replace wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Smith’s partner is due to give birth to their second child in the coming days but the Surrey man was named in England’s XI on Monday.
England XI for second Test: Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root (c), Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Jordan Cox, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Matthew Fisher, Sonny Baker.
