Ireland v England: ‘Wasn’t a chance’ Jordan Cox would miss opportunity to bat in series-clinching victory

In what was his sixth international outing across all formats, Cox’s maiden half-century easily surpassed his previous best of 17 in an England jersey.

After leading The Hundred in runs scored and being named Most Valuable Player as he helped the Oval Invincibles to a third consecutive title last month, he said he had looked to bring some of that confidence to his international return.

“It’s only a ball coming down, don’t worry about it. Whoever is bowling it, just have a bit of fun and show what you can do. That’s what I tried to do.

“I seemed to do well in that Oval shirt so I just was like ‘come on, this is just franchise cricket and I’m playing for the Oval, just enjoy it and have a bit of fun’.

“That’s what I do when I’m there so why not try and do it everywhere?”

Cox said he has “really struggled” with missing out on a Test bow against New Zealand last winter.

In his absence, 21-year-old Jacob Bethell made his Test debut on the tour and now seems sure to be a part of the squad that will be named this week for this winter’s Ashes series in Australia.

Cox added: “To have the opportunity to play for your country in Test cricket is something that I always dreamt of doing, and am still dreaming about doing, so to get that taken away was really hard.

“My friends and family, the people closest to me, said it would have happened for a reason. If that means I wasn’t quite ready to play Test cricket yet, that was someone telling me I wasn’t ready.

“There’s a reason why I didn’t play; there was a reason why Bethell did and why he did so well. But I really struggled with it.”