Jordan Cox recently made the move from Kent to Essex ahead of the 2024 season. Sadly, though, he’s already facing an unplanned early hurdle thanks to a thumb injury. Cox endured a three-way break in his thumb. As a consequence, he is not expected to resume wicketkeeping responsibilities for Essex in the first two months of the season. Despite this setback, Cox remains optimistic about his batting performance and aims to make a significant impact in the County Championship.
Cox was on fire last season, amassing 918 runs in only 11 games. He struck four centuries, including a personal best 207 runs. He’s committed to a high bar. Creativity—Dean Elgar’s achievement of scoring a thousand runs in a year is one of the inspirations. Cox, for one, is hellbent on doing it just as well. Most of all, he’ll be looking to start the season with a bang, providing a huge momentum boost to Essex’s campaign.
"I want to set myself high standards, like Dean Elgar – he came over and scored a thousand runs (last year), that's exactly what I wanted to do. I'll be looking to score a thousand runs for the year, that's always my goal – start the year off well and hopefully I can do that."
Next up for Essex is a tough opening fixture against reigning champions and title favourites Surrey, on April 4th. Cox can’t wait to see Essex start the summer on a positive note! He concedes he will not be able to return as a specialist keeper immediately due to the severity of his injury.
"The break in my thumb was a three-way break. I was supposed to have surgery but apparently it was going to be quite risky, I might not have been able to bend my thumb so we ended up leaving it."
"If Essex desperately needed me to do it, I'd do it but it wouldn't be something I'd be looking to do at least the first two, three months of the season."
Cox admits that it’s not easy dealing with the challenges his injury presents. He is optimistic that he will return to wicketkeeping duties in white ball cricket later this summer. The 35-year-old’s relocation to Essex was prompted by the lack of opportunities elsewhere, most notably in the keeper-batsman role so highly prized.
"I came to Essex to have more opportunity to keep more and I didn't keep at all (last year) because my finger wasn't great, and now we're back to square one, I can't keep again."
Despite the hurdles, Cox is confident in Essex's squad strength and their potential to contend in the championship this season.
"We've got the squad to do it. Essex always fight for championships. If we don't get first place we're going to be pretty annoyed."
Leave a Reply