Jordan Cox may not have stepped out onto the field for Royal Challengers Bengaluru during this IPL season, but he can still count himself among the tournament’s winners. Cox’s most visible moments in the competition came while he was working in the deep as a substitute fielder. In Sunday’s final, he was left rueing a near-miss when a close-range diving chance was denied after a marginal call from the television umpire. Even so, Cox says being part of a title-winning group is something he will never forget.
As Cox prepares to return to England, the contrast between worlds becomes stark. He is expected to play for England Lions in their one-day set of matches against South Africa A, and his first outing at Grace Road will feel far removed from RCB’s trophy celebrations at Narendra Modi Stadium. Yet the question that follows him home is difficult to avoid: what might have changed in his career if he had spent the last two months representing Essex in the County Championship instead of being attached to an IPL squad?
Background: selection pressure and the Championship question
England’s set-up, still digesting the damage from an Ashes defeat, had already signalled that county form would carry extra weight when decisions were being made for the early part of the season. That message was made clear before the first Test against New Zealand, which begins at Lord’s on Thursday. In Cox’s case, the counterfactual is obvious: if he had been consistently scoring hundreds for Essex rather than waiting for opportunities with RCB, there is a strong possibility he would have been in the frame for selection.
Timing, however, is never fully in a player’s control. Cox entered the IPL auction last year on the fringes of England’s squads across formats, and he was eager to prove he belonged in the white-ball conversation. At the time, after two seasons of high-scoring cricket, few would have predicted that runs in the Championship would suddenly be treated as such a decisive currency.
Cox has also seen his progress affected by setbacks that did not originate with his performances. Eighteen months ago, he was preparing for his Test debut in New Zealand when a thumb injury struck him in the nets. That meant he watched Jacob Bethell make his debut instead. Then, last year, another opportunity slipped away when Cox picked up a side strain ahead of a Test against Zimbabwe.
Despite the misfortune, Cox and Bethell have grown close. Over the past few weeks in Bengaluru, they have spent time together off the field—playing padel and watching films with Sacha Baron Cohen featuring prominently in the routine. Cox admits he found it tough to watch Bethell receive the Test cap that he had expected to hold. On the first morning of that Christchurch Test, he needed encouragement from his girlfriend, Amelia, to go down to the ground and face what was happening.
Speaking in India ahead of the IPL play-offs, Cox reflected on that moment: “It was quite a hard thing to be there. But he’s taken it with both hands and it’s been incredible to watch what he’s become. For someone that hasn’t scored any first-class hundreds… to come in and shut everyone up, it just shows that he was the man for the job.”
- Cox did not play an IPL match for RCB, but he featured as a substitute fielder.
- In the final, a close diving chance was ruled out after a marginal TV umpire decision, leaving Cox disappointed.
- Cox says the experience of being part of an IPL title-winning squad is unforgettable.
- He is now set to return home and is expected to represent England Lions in a one-day series against South Africa A.
- His first game at Grace Road will come after RCB’s trophy lift at Narendra Modi Stadium, highlighting the off-field shift.
- England’s selection approach has placed added emphasis on County Championship form ahead of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s.
There is another layer to Cox’s IPL decision-making, and it involves the path Bethell’s career has taken since those earlier injuries. Cox and Bethell debuted for England together in a T20I against Australia, and they also shared the milestone of ODI debuts later on. Cox is hopeful that Bethell will eventually get his own Test debut too, whenever the opportunity arrives.
“He comes to my room and we watch films till 2am, so the friendship we’ve gained has been massive,” Cox says.
Match week twists: how injury chaos could have changed everything
A cruel twist in the story could have altered Cox’s own IPL timeline. Bethell picked up a finger injury while diving to save a boundary during their penultimate group match. When Bethell returned home early, it appeared that James Rew—Cox’s main competition as the spare wicketkeeper-batter—was set to make his debut at Lord’s.
Instead, scans later cleared Bethell of serious damage, making it far more likely he would play regardless. Cox can therefore feel more at ease about the fact that, given England’s batting line-up in the middle order remained unchanged from the fifth Ashes Test, he would probably not have been selected this week even if he had stacked early-season Championship runs for Essex.
Defending his choice to commit to the IPL, Cox frames it as an opportunity he simply could not pass up. “The IPL’s the marquee competition in the world,” he says. “Test cricket’s the biggest thing, and I really want to give it a good crack. But the things I’ve learned here and the calibre of players that are here is something that, at that moment in time, I just couldn’t turn down… It was a dream come true, really, just to be in an IPL team.”
He argues that his recent County Championship numbers already back his claim to be ready at higher levels. For Essex, Cox has produced seven hundreds across two seasons and has averaged above 60. “If you haven’t been around this competition, you don’t know what it’s like,” Cox says. “It’s life-changing… Why would you not go over and learn from the best?”
Off the field, Cox also made an immediate impact in terms of relationships, particularly with Virat Kohli. He says he spent the better part of two months “chewing his ear off” about batting. “He will give you every single bit of information he has in his brain to try and help you,” Cox adds. “Which for me was something that I didn’t expect… For someone like that who’s achieved everything you’d want to achieve in the game, he gives you everything.”
Cox also details how those net sessions have translated into tangible improvements. “I’ve been lucky enough to bat with VK a few times in the nets, which has been pretty awesome,” he says. “Even batting with Salty [Phil Salt], someone that’s been the No. 1-ranked T20 batter in the world, to learn different types of shots and types of opportunities to take down bowling: I feel like my game [against] spin has gone to another level now.”
While Cox admits it has been frustrating to watch from the bench for prolonged stretches, he insists his reasons for valuing the time in India cannot be dismissed as mere financial convenience. His RCB deal is worth INR 75 lakh (about £58,500), which is five times less than the contract he held with Welsh Fire in The Hundred. Instead, Cox believes the experience has already delivered value that will matter when he returns to selection contention.
With that in mind, his next priority is to convert the intangible gains of the IPL environment into runs over the coming weeks—runs that can put him back on the England radar. His pathway begins with the white-ball schedule: a series against India consisting of five T20Is and three ODIs in July. He also suggests that, depending on how things unfold after the Hundred, a Test recall could remain possible for matches against Pakistan.
“I feel like I’ve been on the cusp for three years,” Cox says with a smile. “Hopefully, I’ll get back and hit the ground running. That would be ideal – and then what will be will be.”
