{"id":628519,"date":"2026-06-09T02:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628519\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T02:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:45:12","slug":"jordan-cox-essex-boosted-by-t20-blast-return-of-former-kent-batter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628519\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Cox: Essex boosted by T20 Blast return of former Kent batter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Essex batter Jordan Cox is set to play his first game for the club this season when they meet his former side Kent Spitfires in the T20 Blast on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cox has returned to Chelmsford after playing two games for England Lions against South Africa A on Friday and Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was his first action since February, having failed to make an appearance for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 2026 Indian Premier League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Essex will be hoping Cox can now spend a few weeks finding form in the Blast and the County Championship, having missed out on an England Test cap last summer because of injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Seam bowler Sam Cook, meanwhile, remains unavailable after suffering a fracture in his wrist during a training session last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He is working closely with our medical team as he goes through rehabilitation and recovery,&#8221; the club said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Essex are second in South Group, having won three of their five Blast games so far &#8211; including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/cvg7dz31qk5o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a 60-run win over Middlesex<\/a> on Sunday at Northwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A stand of 133 between two of their younger batters, Charlie Allison and Luc Benkenstein &#8211; who made 61 and 67 respectively &#8211; was key to victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We kind of assessed it was going to be tricky out there, especially with the hard ball and the potential for swing,&#8221; Allison told BBC Essex. &#8220;You have to absorb as much as you can and then find a bowler that you can go after and back yourselves to be able to catch up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Luc is an unbelievable striker of a cricket ball and can go through the gears very quickly, which is why having him at four is so great for us, especially on a pitch where maybe the dimensions are a bit smaller and he can clear the ropes with ease.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essex batter Jordan Cox is set to play his first game for the club this season when they&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}