As thoughts begin to turn to this winter’s Ashes tour of Australia though, and the conversation at the start of the new county season focuses on candidates for England’s touring squad, Durham’s potential springers are at the opposite end of the order. For once, it is a couple of promising batsmen that are hogging the headlines.
Ben McKinney, the Sunderland-born 20-year-old who impressed while scoring a century in Australia for England Lions over the winter, is increasingly being talked of as a Test player in the making. The Wearsider will open the batting alongside Alex Lees when Durham start the new county season at Nottinghamshire on Friday, and is a hugely-exciting talent.
The place below him in the batting order will be filled by Emilio Gay, and while the summer signing from Northamptonshire has so far missed out on representative honours with the Lions, his performances over the last couple of seasons suggest he is more than good enough to be part of the Test conversation.
The 24-year-old scored 919 first-class runs in his ten matches with Northants last season, a tally that included his maiden double hundred against Middlesex. Having turned down the offer of a new contract at Northampton, he was a player in demand, but he chose Durham ahead of a number of other suitors. Why? England. Or at least the chance of a move to Chester-le-Street increasing his chances of playing for his country.
“The main decision was to go somewhere that would put me in the best place to play for England,” said Gay, whose father hails from Grenada, but whose mother is a mix of English and Italian. “Whether that be being in Division One or being with the players that are around me now.
“I knew the kind of environment that I wanted to be training and playing in every day. I thought this was a great fit for me to achieve those things, and obviously Ryan Campbell and Marcus North thought the same. That’s really how it came about.
“It’s an exciting time. It feels like Durham are ready to go to that next level, and hopefully I can play a part in helping to make that happen. There’s plenty of depth in this team, with different levels of experience. We’ve got players who have played at Test level, but then we’ve also got some talented young lads coming through which is really exciting as well.
“I just think the most exciting thing is the number of players who are in and around higher honours, whether that be the T20 set-up, the Hundred or with England. There are so many players that are looking to achieve beyond just county level, and I think that’s helping drive standards and ambitions within the club.”
While Stokes, Wood and Carse are all expected to be off-limits in terms of playing for Durham this season, their regular presence in and around the dressing room is nevertheless a powerful reminder of Durham’s pedigree in terms of supplying players for the England team.
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Stokes was at the newly-renamed Banks Homes Riverside Stadium on Monday as Durham’s players posed for the annual pre-season photo shoot, and while he is not yet back in full training following winter hamstring surgery, the Test skipper remains a powerful presence inspiring those around him.
“When I see someone like Ben around the training set-up, it just rams home to me the fact that this club is such a big filter for England,” said Gay, who played two games on loan for Durham at the end of last season before completing his permanent move to the North-East. “It really provides a lot of talent to England. That shows they’re doing something right, whether that be the coaching or just the environment and attitude around the club.
“I think that is probably the biggest reason I came here, to be around players like Brydon, Matthew and Ben. That was a big thing for me. If you’re around these players, you can learn off them.
“I’m not saying I was the big fish in a small pond at Northampton, but I definitely think it will help me to be part of such a high-class, talented collective here at Durham. I can learn off these players. The general standards and goals are just slightly higher. It’s good to be part of that.”
Durham’s main collective goal this season is to improve on last season’s fifth-place finish and challenge for the County Championship title. Beyond that, improving on historically lacklustre showings in both the Vitality Blast and One-Day Cup are key ambitions, with Gay confident his new team-mates are more than capable of competing at the very highest level on multiple fronts.
“When you come here and hear the goals from Northy and Cambo, you realise quickly that they are serious about challenging for silverware,” he said. “That’s definitely the goal, but we’ve got to take it game by game.
“We’re going into that first block of games in the Championship, and we’ll see where we are after that. Even if we are in a great position, there’s so much cricket after that so we can’t get ahead of ourselves. I think there is that belief that we can do it, it’s just putting the pieces together and hopefully getting a little bit of luck along the way.”
