“It didn't feel right to leave Kent,” he says. “I left some of my best friends who you have a great bond with, which is sad and emotional. I had a good chat with Jack Leaning, my team-mate there who had moved from Yorkshire. I felt the grass was greener, but I spent three or four months thinking about what I wanted to do.
“But when I got injured in the winter I thought 'why am I moving?' The reason I moved from my boyhood county was to stay. I didn't get that guarantee at Kent, with Sam Billings having a sniff in the Test team. They couldn't promise me that, and I wanted that guarantee about what my role was. To get injured at that point I asked myself 'have I made the right decision?'
“I've always said I'll try any role. I want to have as many strings to my bow as possible. I love goaltending. I get to play goaltending again this month, and it's been tough not to do that this season. But in a way it's been a blessing because I've been completely focused on my batting.”
Cox has settled into No. 4, replacing Surrey-bound Lawrence at Essex. His average of 34.5 in red-ball cricket for Kent has doubled to 69 for Essex. Kent have been hit hard by his form. In his first encounter with his old county, Cox made 116 not out from 89 balls. In the second, he made 207 from 255.
“Kent had been my club since I was 10, so it felt brave to take on a new chapter and a new challenge,” he says. “When I moved to a new club, I had to impress and show people that I could do it. He was a high-profile signing, I was essentially replacing Dan Lawrence. I had to fill his shoes. He was scoring 1,000 runs a year and had been part of a lot of successes in different formats. I was excited to take on that challenge and show people that I could do it. I didn't want people to say that Dan Lawrence was really missed.”
One hundred returns marks 'rollercoaster year'
There were two main reasons for choosing Essex over other candidates. The first was Jason Gallian. The Australian-born former England batsman has been Cox’s coach since he was 13, having arrived at Felsted School, near Braintree, as the golf-mad son of two tennis coaches. Cricket, because of its team element, quickly became his focus under Gallian’s tutelage.
“Jason is my coach,” he says. “We'll still work together regularly and he knows my batting better than anyone, so being around him is great. The other thing about Essex is the club record, always fighting for the championship and the Blast. That's what I want. It didn't bother me that Essex wasn't a Test match ground. I watched the players there.
“I was devastated then Sir Alastair Cook has retired because I could have learned so much from him, but Dean Elgar came along and I learned a lot from him. I like to remind him that he is about 20 years older than me, and call him grandpa. He is definitely one of the reasons why my game has gone to another level. He helped me learn how to bat for long periods. I used to get bored when I turned 20, which was nobody's fault but mine. Now I want to be a guy who can block to save a game if that is the best outcome for the team, or go crazy.”
Cox's first summer was cut short in late June when his appendix was removed during a Championship match against Surrey. He was told he would be out for three months. Instead, he battled back to fitness over five weeks, making a match-winning 46 not out from 29 balls on Thursday before following that up with an unbeaten 61 from 30 balls on Sunday as Oval Invincibles secured their place in the knockout rounds of the Hundred. Cox is still playing despite the pain in his abdomen.
With injury, illness, a move and now a Test call-up, Cox describes the past year as a “rollercoaster of emotions”. When it comes to international cricket, the ride gets even wilder.