Jordan Cox set to make England debut in NZ as a keeping replacement for the current wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Jordan Cox is set to make his Test debut with Jamie Smith due to miss part of the series on paternity leave.
Cox, who turns 24 on Monday, has spent the last five Test matches as England’s backup hitter. In December, he will get the opportunity to make an impression.
Midway through December, Smith and his girlfriend are expecting their first child. That is expected to coincide with England’s second or third Test match in New Zealand.
“Being at the birth of my son is not something I want to miss,” he told the Daily Mail recently. “It will be a memory that I cherish more than any in cricket anyway. So if I lost my place because of it, so be it.”
Cox, who made his debut for his country last month in England’s Twenty20 International series against Australia, will shortly be included in the teams for their forthcoming Caribbean white-ball trip. Due to a terrible broken finger he had during the Hundred last year, he was unable to keep wicket for Essex this summer. However, he has been practicing keeping in Pakistan with Brendon McCullum.
“It’s life, right?” McCullum said of Smith’s absence. “People have kids and we wish them all the best, to be there and support their partners. It looks like Jamie will probably play the first [Test in New Zealand] and may miss the next two. We’re not totally sure. It’s up to Mother Nature a little – but we know we’ve got Jordan Cox in the squad here.”
Cox is a confident individual who, last year while playing for a struggling Kent side, admitted that he would feel “bored” once he turned 40. Feeling that he “needed a change” to help him “reignite” his passion for four-day cricket, he transferred to Essex. In his maiden County Championship season, he averaged 65.57 and made four hundreds for them.
If England do not lose a batsman to illness or injury before this Thursday’s third Test in Rawalpindi, Cox will be included in their white-ball squads and will probably go to the Caribbean with Rehan Ahmed. Marcus Trescothick, the temporary white-ball coach for the series against the West Indies, had already departed Pakistan.