Emilio Gay's Trust-Building Summer: A Case for South Africa Selection
Emilio Gay walked off at Edgbaston with only 60 to his name, but with something far more valuable quietly building around him: trust.
Trust from a dressing room that has watched him scrap through a brutal English summer. Trust from a former captain who knows exactly how lonely life can be at the top of an innings.
Sir Alastair Cook has seen enough. For him, Gay should be on the plane to South Africa this winter – and opening the batting when he gets there.
Cook’s seal of approval
Cook, who spent a career soaking up new-ball storms for England and finished with almost 12,000 Test runs, does not hand out praise lightly. What has caught his eye in Gay is not a flashy cover drive or a headline-grabbing hundred. It is the way the 26-year-old has chosen to survive.
“I think Emilio Gay's played really nicely. I would say he's confident and intense,” Cook told Test Match Special, impressed by the way the left-hander resisted Pakistan’s attack on day one.
Gay’s 60 from 114 balls was not a cameo. It was a tone-setter. England were looking to seize control against a Pakistan side that would later be bundled out for 133. To do that, they needed someone to blunt the new ball, to wear the shine off and the bowlers down. Gay did exactly that.
“He is definitely a run-getter when he gets in. He seems to have that real stubborn and strong will to make it count if he can,” Cook said. “He has done enough for me to take him to South Africa to continue the progress of a player where the pitches will be slightly easier to bat on and he should open the batting.”
In a summer where batters have been routinely exposed, that stubbornness has stood out.
Runs in a bowler’s summer
On paper, Gay’s numbers do not leap off the page: 261 runs at 26.1. In another year, on flatter pitches, that might look ordinary. This year, it looks like evidence of resilience.
Ben Duckett is the only England player to reach three figures in six home Tests so far. The ball has ruled. Mistakes have been punished. Pretty 30s have vanished in a blur of edges and lbws.
In that context, Gay’s ability to fight his way in matters. Only Harry Brook, with six, has passed 30 more often than Gay’s five this summer. He has not yet gone on to the big one, but he has repeatedly done the hard bit: getting in when others have fallen around him.
He has also done it with a method that analysts like. According to CricViz, Gay has left or defended 61% of the pace deliveries he has faced since his debut against New Zealand in June. No England opener has been more selective in a home summer since Dom Sibley in 2020, who left or defended 68%.
On Wednesday, Gay again trusted his judgement. He left or defended 65 balls, forcing Pakistan’s seamers to keep coming back, over after over. Cook particularly admired how late he defended, allowing the ball to come under his eyes, absorbing pressure before looking to score.
Gay’s tempo told its own story. The first 12 runs of his half-century took 43 balls. The next 38 arrived from 52. He started by digging in, then expanded once set. That is old-fashioned Test batting, but with a modern edge.
Because when he does score, he scores quickly. Gay hit nine fours in his 60, and 68% of his Test runs have come in boundaries – the joint-highest proportion of any England batter with at least 250 runs in the format. He may look patient, but he punishes anything loose.
“He's not hunting that drive too often. He waits for it to come into there,” Cook said. “He scores off the back foot through the off side as well. He scored through the leg side and timed them through mid-wicket so he does have an all-round game. He's not limited to the off side.”
A flaw to fix – and a chance missed
For all the promise, there is a clear area to tighten. Bowlers have found success dragging their length back. Gay has struggled against back-of-a-length bowling, with seven dismissals in the 7–9 metre range exposing a potential weakness.
That vulnerability surfaced again at Edgbaston. On a day that seemed made for him to finally convert, he dragged on a delivery from Razaullah Khan, undone by an extra burst of pace and a lapse in concentration late in the day.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan saw both the quality and the regret.
“Emilio Gay found his balance early. He had it hard at the start and then he found his flow,” Vaughan said. “He'll be really disappointed to get out for 60. He'll be desperate to get his first Test match century and I thought it was on today.
“That extra little bit of pace from Razaullah and a little lack of concentration at the end of the day has cost him.”
Given Pakistan’s fragile batting – and their first-innings 133 – this may even prove to be Gay’s final Test innings of the summer. If England do not need to bat again, his case for the winter will rest on what he has already shown, not on a maiden hundred.
South Africa scrap on the horizon
That makes the next selection call intriguing. Jacob Bethell is expected to return for the South Africa tour after injury, and the top-order jigsaw is far from settled. The battle for two batting spots looks likely to be fought between Jordan Cox, Dan Lawrence and Gay.
Cox brings versatility and white-ball pedigree. Lawrence offers experience and a different tempo. Gay, though, has banked something more intangible: evidence that he can absorb a Test match and not be overwhelmed by it.
He has done it not just in the middle, but in the nets. Seamer Josh Tongue has watched the preparation up close and believes it explains the calm in the middle.
“The one thing I've seen in Emilio is he trains really hard in the nets. He'll bat for ages, putting a lot of hard work in, and it's shown on the pitch,” Tongue said. “Even last week at Lord's, he had two quite horrible dismissals, but I felt today he batted unbelievable on a tricky pitch.
“He was obviously really disappointed with how he got out. It's not a nice feeling, chopping on, but he's put the team in a really good position for tomorrow.”
That is the paradox of Gay’s summer. No hundreds, a visible flaw against a particular length, a modest average. Yet within that, a growing sense that England may have found something worth persevering with at the top of the order.
Cook has nailed his colours to the mast. The numbers back up the eye test. Now the question is simple: will England give Emilio Gay the South African surfaces – and the time – to turn hard-earned 60s into the hundreds he is clearly desperate to score?
