Jordan Cox

Jordan Cox, whose fielding skills have come to be one of his calling cards in an age of T20 outfielding legerdemain, joined Kent at ten and a decade later, in 2021, helped them win their first trophy in a generation with a player-of-the-match performance in the T20 Blast final.

Coming in in the 12th over, he worked his way to 20 off 17 balls before a late flurry of boundary-hitting took him to 58 not out off 28. Then, in the field, he produced a moment of magic, jumping beyond the boundary rope after sprinting round from deep midwicket before parrying the ball back into play in mid-air for the catch to be completed by a team-mate.

Educated at Felsted School, Cox made his first-class, List A and T20 debuts for Kent 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 allows him to play grade cricket in Sydney. 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 in 2024, and his white-ball consistency earned him England caps in T20Is and ODIs later that year.