Emilio Gay has played for Italy and might have represented West Indies — but will debut for England at Lord’s

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He has played for Italy and last year turned down an approach by West Indies. But Emilio Gay will be fulfilling a lifetime’s ambition when he walks out at Lord’s this week, weather permitting, to open the batting for England against New Zealand.

It was only when he was reassured that representing an associate country who do not play Test cricket would not disqualify him from England that Gay accepted Italy’s advances.

The Durham batter, born and bred in Bedford, qualified through his maternal grandmother who moved to the UK from Montefalcione, near Naples.

But Gay has always had much loftier targets than playing for one of cricket’s smaller emerging nations.

Gareth Berg, Gay’s former team-mate at Northamptonshire and now the Italy coach, tried for two years to recruit his friend to the Italian cause, but it was only when they started competing for a place at the T20 World Cup that Gay decided to lend a hand.

He made an immediate impact 18 months ago when debuting for Italy against Tanzania in an ICC World Cup challenge 50-over game at Uganda’s Entebbe Oval, about as far away from a Lord’s Test as it is possible to get, scoring 96 from 84 balls.

Gay then went on, in the words of Berg, to “boss it” for Italy as they qualified for the T20 World Cup in India this year, but was denied playing against England in that tournament by a hamstring injury suffered, ironically, playing for England Lions in Australia.

“I am so grateful for the opportunities Italy have given me,” Gay told The Telegraph. “But not being disrespectful to them, and they know this, they were never my priority. I was trying to help them succeed but also get more white-ball cricket under my belt against good opposition and have some fun and new experiences.

“The priority has always been England. There has never been any confusion there.”

That was why Gay said no to a West Indies side for which he qualifies as his father’s family originate from Grenada. It says much for his character that he was prepared to turn down a concrete offer to play Test cricket to wait for an England opportunity that was far from guaranteed.

The decision to say no to West Indies was emotional. Gay’s interest in cricket was ignited on a family trip to the Caribbean in 2007 when he watched the World Cup and had a shirt signed by West Indies Dwayne Bravo. Playing for West Indies would have meant a lot to his father’s family. But a batter educated at Bedford School, which counts Sir Alastair Cook among its alumni, always wanted to emulate his fellow left-hander at the top of the England order.

Now that day will come after Gay became the first recipient of England’s stated aim of putting more store by county performances in the wake of their Ashes humbling.

At the start of the season it appeared Gay’s Durham team-mate Ben McKinney — younger, more attacking and probably with a higher ceiling — was ahead of him in the queue to replace Zak Crawley. But the appointment of Durham director of cricket Marcus North as England’s new national selector undoubtedly worked in Gay’s favour.

It was North who insisted to England coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, another Durham man, that Gay’s time had come and he deserves this opportunity, at 26, after prolific run scoring in the last two years since his move north.

Gay believed his England ambitions would be better served at Durham, who have a history of producing England players, rather than with Northants and scored four division-one County Championship centuries last year before their surprise relegation.

He has been just as prolific in the second tier this year, making three centuries in Durham’s opening six Championship games, albeit batting at No 3 because his county prefer McKinney and captain Alex Lees in their opening positions.

That should not really be an issue at Lord’s, given Gay has always been an opener. He is an engaging character who looks to have the confidence and game to cope with the additional pressure that the highest stage will bring.

Gay’s attitude did cause him problems in his early days, when his first Northants coach David Ripley remembers a youngster perhaps with a little too much confidence. “It didn’t all go smoothly at first,” Ripley told the i Paper. “He was very strong-willed and confident and that didn’t always come out well with other players.

“His first year, in particular, I remember as being quite tricky in terms of finding his place in the group. But he went off to the second team and credit to Emilio for how he adapted. He found his way and grew as a person.”

That growth was evident when Gay gave a mature interview to Neil Manthorp and Steve Harmison on their excellent talkSPORT podcast, Following On, where he explained his decision to move away from friends and family to throw in his lot with Durham.

“I’ve wanted to play for England since I was six or seven years old,” said Gay. “I didn’t move up here for the weather. My partner and family are four hours away.

“I moved up here to advance my career and I felt if I was serious about playing Test cricket, this was something I had to do. I sat down with Marcus North and he reeled off a list of players from here who had gone on to play for England and they’re serious about producing Test match cricketers and that’s something I wanted to be part of.

“I reached the stage where I needed to move and that’s nothing against Northants. It was simply wanting to be in the best position to move forward and if there’s more eyes and ears on a club where the likes of Ben Stokes, Alex Lees and Ben McKinney are playing, I want to be there and have that pressure to perform.

“It’s great when you have the England captain watching you. It brings pressure and that’s what I needed.”

The pressure will undoubtedly be on England and Gay on Thursday in the first of three Tests against New Zealand as they begin their attempt to win back the faith of an England support disillusioned by the scale of their winter capitulation in Australia.

And Gay’s confidence and ability will be tested to the full by an impressive-looking New Zealand attack and an uncertain weather forecast that should make conditions highly conducive to seam bowling.

“Emilio has a game which could really thrive in Test cricket, but you never really know until they step up,” England coach McCullum told reporters on Tuesday. “Things are different in international cricket, especially at Lord’s.

“There will be a full house, the crowd will be making the Lord’s hum, the brass band will be playing and his name will be announced as he walks onto the turf where so many great cricketers have walked before.

“Things start to affect you. How he handles that will be fascinating and we’ll certainly be there to try to help him and guide him through. It’s not going to be easy for him because he’s going to be challenged by a very good New Zealand side.

“But I have every confidence that Emilio will cope with things well. He has a nice calm head on his shoulders and I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job.”