Joshua James Cobb (born 17 August 1990) is an English cricket player. He currently plays for

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northa ...

. He is a top order batsmen and occasional

off-spinner Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which sp ...

. He was man of the match in the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

and 2016 Twenty20 finals.

Career

Cobb scored a double century for the England Under 19s. He attended

Oakham School (Like runners, they pass on the torch of life) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president ...

as a child, where he was a key member of the first team, averaging over 50 with the bat in his final season. Cobb made his first team debut in 2007, aged just 17, but gained a regular place in 2008 when he scored 148 not out against

Middlesex County Cricket Club Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, an innings which made him Leicestershire's youngest ever centurion. He is also an off spin bowler. He came to prominence at the

2011 Friends Life t20 The 2011 Friends Life t20 was the second season of the Friends Life t20, England's premier domestic Twenty20 competition. The season ran from 1 June to 27 August 2011. The teams in the tournament remained the same as the previous season. The sch ...

Final against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, where he won the man of the match award after scoring a crucial quick fire 18 and then taking a career best 4–22 to help restrict Somerset to 127–9 giving the Foxes the Cup by a total of 18 runs. In July 2012, Cobb was named captain of Leicestershire's limited overs side, succeeding

Matthew Hoggard Matthew James Hoggard, (born 31 December 1976) is a former English cricketer, who played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000 to 2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day Internationals. The 6' 2" Hoggard was a right arm f ...

. In 2013 he was named vice-captain to

Ramnaresh Sarwan Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan (born 23 June 1980) is a cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin who played as a batsman. He is a former member and former captain of the West Indies cricket team, in all formats. Sarwan went on to average over 40 in both the ...

for Leicester's County Championship campaign. In 2013 Joshua signed for the

Dhaka Gladiators The Dhaka Dominators (Dhakaiya/ bn, ঢাকা ডমিনেটর্স) is a franchise cricket team that plays in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), representing the country's Dhaka City, Dhaka. The team was originally established in 20 ...

in the

Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ প্রিমিয়ার লীগ) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league consisting of seven franchises. The BPL is one of the three professional cricket leagues in ...

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

tournament. He signed for

Northants Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is kn ...

ahead of the 2015 season, and played an important part in their progress to the semifinal of the

competition, as well as playing in all 16 of their County Championship matches. The following year his first-class appearances were limited by a knee injury, but he played an important role in winning the

title. He scored 80 off just 48 balls, as part of a 120 run fourth wicket partnership with Alex Wakely. For this he won the man of the match award in the final for the second time, the previous being with

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in 2011. Shortly before finals day, it was announced that Cobb had signed a three-year contract to continue playing for Northants. In 2021, he was bought by the

Welsh Fire Welsh Fire ( cy, Tân Cymreig) are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Cardiff. The team represents the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Somerset in the newly founded competiti ...

in The Hundred. In the 2022 season, he was appointed captain of the team after

Jonny Bairstow Jonathan Marc Bairstow (born 26 September 1989) is an English cricketer who plays internationally for England in all formats. In domestic cricket, he represents Yorkshire, and has played in multiple Twenty20 leagues, including for Sunrisers Hy ...

pulled out of the competition.

Personal life

Cobb follows in the footsteps of his father, Russell Cobb, who was also a Leicestershire batsmen (and currently works as Head Coach at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Joshua 1990 births English expatriate sportspeople in Bangladesh Dhaka Dynamites cricketers English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Living people Northamptonshire cricketers Cricketers from Leicester Central Districts cricketers Sylhet Sixers cricketers Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club cricketers Welsh Fire cricketers