Cook Backs Emilio Gay for South Africa Tour
Sir Alastair Cook has seen enough. In a summer that has chewed up and spat out opening batters, he believes Emilio Gay should be on the plane to South Africa.
At Edgbaston, on a surface offering Pakistan’s quicks just enough encouragement to keep every ball interesting, Gay dug in for a Test-best 60 from 114 deliveries. It was not a swaggering, highlight-reel innings. It was something more valuable for an England opener right now: stubborn, organised, and utterly unwilling to give his wicket away.
Cook backs Gay for South Africa
Cook, who knows more than most about the art of surviving at the top of the order after almost 12,000 Test runs, liked what he saw.
"I think Emilio Gay's played really nicely. I would say he's confident and intense," he told Test Match Special, praising a player whose numbers on paper do not immediately leap off the page.
Gay’s 261 runs at 26.1 this summer hardly scream certainty. Yet context changes everything. In six home Tests, only Ben Duckett has managed a century. Bowlers have ruled, conditions have been unforgiving, and pretty averages have been in short supply. In that landscape, a left-hander willing to absorb pressure and make hard runs becomes a precious commodity.
Cook sees that steel.
"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.
"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."
A different kind of aggression
The numbers behind Gay’s method tell their own story. According to CricViz, he has left or defended 61% of the pace deliveries he has faced since debuting against New Zealand in June. Only Dom Sibley, back in 2020 with 68%, has been more selective in a home summer among recent England openers.
On Wednesday, that discipline was on full display. Gay left or defended 65 balls, forcing Pakistan’s seamers to keep coming back for another go. Cook particularly admired how late he played his defensive shots, trusting his technique and the pitch rather than jabbing nervously at the ball.
His tempo built slowly. The first 12 runs of his half-century came from 43 balls. The next 38 arrived from 52. He finished with nine fours, and a striking statistic: 68% of his Test runs have come in boundaries, the joint-highest proportion for any England batter with at least 250 red-ball runs.
This is not a blocker. It is a player who soaks up the right balls, then cashes in when bowlers stray.
"If you take Gay's innings, and what I've seen of him, 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."
Missed hundred, growing reputation
The frustration for Gay is that this might be it for his home summer. With Pakistan bowled out for 133 and England in command, there may not be another meaningful innings before the winter.
That raises the stakes for selection. With Jacob Bethell expected to return from injury for the South Africa tour, two top-order berths are likely to be fought out between Jordan Cox, Dan Lawrence and Gay. In a season where batters have repeatedly found ways to get out rather than go big, Gay has at least kept putting himself in the contest.
Only Harry Brook, with six scores above 30, has passed that mark more often than Gay’s five. The next step is obvious. Turning promise into hundreds.
There is a flaw to iron out. Seven of Gay’s dismissals have come to balls in the 7-9 metre range, that awkward back-of-a-length area which exposes any indecision between front and back foot. Pakistan found it again at Edgbaston.
Former captain Michael Vaughan felt the innings deserved more.
"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."
Gay dragged on against Razaullah Khan when the hard work seemed done. The dismissal hurt. It should. England want openers who are angry at leaving runs out there.
Work in the nets, rewards in the middle
Inside the dressing room, the respect for Gay’s approach is growing. Seamer Josh Tongue pointed straight at the unseen hours.
"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 crux of the argument for South Africa. Not just the 60 at Edgbaston, or the boundary percentage, or the leave-and-defend data. It is the pattern: the willingness to front up again after “horrible dismissals”, to stay out there long enough for balance to return, to make the attack work for every breakthrough.
England’s search for a long-term partner at the top of the order has felt endless at times. Gay has not solved it yet. He has not even scored that first Test hundred.
But in a summer where the ball has been king, he has shown he can survive, adapt, and fight. For an opener eyeing a South African tour and faster, truer pitches, that might be exactly the platform he needs.
