When Ben Duckett walks out to bat at Lord’s in the opening Test against New Zealand, the likeliest man to accompany him through the Long Room is Emilio Gay.
With Zak Crawley floundering in the first month of the County Championship season, Gay has picked the opportune moment to press his claims to being England’s next opener.
Should he indeed win selection on June 4, Gay will be able to draw on the memory of a century at Lord’s already this summer. He converted his overnight 75 into 129 against Middlesex, before being bowled by off-spinner Joshua De Caires. At 530 for eight overnight, a lead of exactly 100, Durham will now have hopes of putting Middlesex under pressure on the final day.
Gay became the first man to score three championship centuries so far this season, though his team-mate Dave Bedingham joined him later on the third day. But Gay’s haul of 473 runs at an average of 94.6 indicates a cricketer who is relishing the possibility of Test-match recognition.
Last week, Gay spoke to the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast about welcoming extra media scrutiny. After all, he reasons, such extra pressure will inevitably follow him should he win England selection, so better to prepare now.
Not all cricketers who are tantalisingly close to Test selection respond to the extra focus with the same relish. A decade ago, Scott Borthwick was poised to win selection as a specialist batsman for England – completing a remarkable transformation after his sole cap as a specialist leg-spinner. But as Borthwick spoke more to the media, his returns dwindled, and England looked elsewhere.
Gay is Durham’s No 3, slotting in below fellow left-handers Alex Lees, who played 10 Tests for England, and Ben McKinney, the 21-year-old widely expected to play Test cricket, too. But Gay has a long pedigree opening in first-class cricket for Northamptonshire, before joining Durham ahead of the 2025 season. The reason for Gay’s move was simple: he reasoned that he needed to push on to give himself the best chance of playing Test cricket.
With 954 runs at 45.4 apiece, Gay thrived for his new county, though Durham still suffered surprise relegation from Division One. Gay’s selection as England Lions opener in Australia last winter revealed how prominently he features in England’s thinking. During his appearances with the Lions, Gay has impressed Lions coach Andrew Flintoff with his swagger at the crease.
“Freddie was massive with me on mindset,” Gay told Wisden Cricket Weekly. “He obviously had that aura, call it arrogance or confidence, when he went out there. And he noticed that I sometimes have a bit of a strut when I walk out to bat.
“He just congratulated me on having a strut. I was like, ‘Wow, like really?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, like, we want you to have that.’ He mentioned Baz [Brendon McCullum] and Stokesy [Ben Stokes], and he was like, ‘All of us, we want that. If there’s any England team that’s ever wanted confidence, it’s this one.’ And he said: ‘When you go out to bat, don’t turn that off.’”
Gay has already been approached to play Test cricket. Last year, Cricket West Indies got in touch to ask whether Gay would want to explore playing for them; his paternal grandparents are from Grenada. Gay has also represented Italy in three T20s, qualifying through his maternal grandfather. But he has always been clear that he sees his international future with England.
That could bode ill for Crawley. There is a chasm between their two records this championship season. Crawley has just 177 runs at 22.1 apiece for Kent, and is yet to score even a half-century. Only one man, Joe Clarke, has scored more championship runs than Gay.
One man who is certain to be at Lord’s, Joe Root, helped Yorkshire fight back in an enthralling tussle with Somerset at Taunton. Root’s 64, which was ended when he was clean bowled by Craig Overton, and 92 from James Wharton, helped Yorkshire reach 365 for nine in their second innings after conceding a first-innings lead of 112. Even at this early juncture of the season, Somerset will sense that their final-day run chase, which could end up with their third victory in four games, could be crucial to their championship prospects.
At the Oval, Surrey are on course for their first victory of the season, finally overcoming the docile pitch. Debutant Adam Thomas, one of five Old Cranleighans in the Surrey squad, marked his first-class debut with a century in the hosts’ gargantuan 622 all out, reaching his hundred with a pull off Ollie Robinson. After Matt Fisher’s lively new-ball spell, Sussex closed on 76 for four, still needing another 189 to make Surrey bat again.