"I've done exactly what I wanted to do, my goal is to help Durham get big scores"-Emilo Gay speaks exclusively to The Chester

954 runs at an average of 45.4 marks a good return for a top-order batter in this country and he's certainly made a name for himself, with England Lions recognition coming his way.

However, much to the frustration to supporters, when Gay wasn't getting tons, he was getting low scores.

Three 150-plus knocks were joined by eight single-figure scores, which included five ducks. When speaking to The Chester about his season that has been marred by mixed performances, he admitted that while often struggling for starts, he was pleased to get a hundred on four of the five occasions when he passed fifty.

"To be honest, I've always said as a criticism of myself that the best players convert, you know, 50s and make big 100s. That's the most important thing, nobody remembers 30s and 40s.

"The last couple of years, I think I've got two County Championship hundreds in each season and got quite a few 50s.

"This year I've done the opposite, so in a way, look, I would've liked a few more 30s and starts to have a platform to build on, but I've done exactly what I've wanted to do, my goal is to help Durham get big scores. As an opener or as a top three batter, if I'm in and I get to 50, I think can I convert to a big hundred. I've done that with four 100s and a 99, so in my head that's almost five hundreds in Division One. I can't be too displeased with that.

"When I've got in I've been really ruthless, so it's maybe trying to find that balance, if I can get a few more starts then I could get even more hundreds."

Gay's century making record speaks for itself, no batter in Division One got more than his tally of four hundreds, a record that he shares with six players.

Despite Durham's woeful home form this term, winning just one of seven County Championship games, Gay enjoyed his home comforts, with three of his four tons coming at DH3 and he admits that he enjoys batting at the Banks Homes Riverside.

"I am enjoying it here, last year I got a 50 on home debut and for Northants in the Blast, I got a 50 here as well. I quite like batting here, it's a ground I seem to score runs on. This hundred here (163 vs Worcestershire) was really important, it's probably one of my most important ones, but I actually think my 99 against Surrey was my best knock of the year."

Unlike fellow new signings Will Rhodes and Sam Conners, Gay had a few games with the team at the end of the 2024 season and the Durham batter feels that helped him ahead of the season.

"It helped from a team perspective, with getting to know the lads. I was actually out of nick a little bit, I hadn't played cricket for a month. I didn't train loads coming in, I came here, had a few nets and then we were down at Surrey, The Oval, and I remember feeling a bit out of nick coming in and it probably didn't help my confidence. From the perspective of getting to know the lads, it really helped and I got to know the area as well."

Gay also has the unique honour of having represented two different countries this season, with the batter turning out for Italy in their T20 World Cup qualification campaign and then joining up with the England Lions.

Gay impressed for both, with him hitting 71 for the Lions against an impressive India A side and he also hit a half-century for Italy against Scotland.

Despite his exploits for the Italian side in the summer, Gay's sights are firmly fixed on earning a Test cap for England, something he could go some way to doing when he turns out for the Lions once again this winter.

"Yeah it's been good, obviously Italy have qualified for the World Cup which is exciting. That's very much exciting for me as I really want to try and develop my white-ball game as much as I can. I've been really open about that, trying to play as much T20 cricket as possible, as soon as I found out I wasn't going to play in the Blast when I got back from the Lions, I decided to go and play those qualifiers against Scotland and everyone else to try and get some T20 cricket under my belt.

"Everyone knows that Test cricket is my ultimate goal, so Italy or anything will never come in the way of that. My focus is to represent England as it has been from the age of six years old."

Since the interview, it was announced that Gay and Durham team mate Ben McKinney would be a part of the 18-man Lions squad which heads down under prior to the Ashes. Their games will include an Ashes warm-up clash with the England senior side and a fixture with Australia A.

The Lions are coached by England icon Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff and Gay told The Chester about the impact that the coach had on him during the summer camp.

"I feel like I played some of my best cricket of the season against India A for the Lions, I got a 46 and a 70-odd. The way I played, I was really happy with.

"Obviously I knew Freddie was going to be head coach and I was quite excited about that. I was really, I don't want to say impressed, that's not the right word, but the way he was with us was slightly different to the way I'd thought he'd be.

"He wasn't really a coach, he was much more looking at how he can get the best out of his players. I felt like that, anyway, and I remember him sitting me down on the second day of the first match and he said to me about sticking my chest out and he's noticed that in me.

"He said to me to keep doing that, just give me that reassurance in the field. Just something like that coming from Freddie Flintoff, I was like, oh wow, that is the way I want to go about it and it's helped massively.

"This is the great thing about being in these camps with the Lions, you're exposed to the best cricketing brains and I'm someone that wants to learn. For me, it's been great and hopefully there's much more of that to come."