That Wisden assessment was made to look unduly modest within weeks of the start of the 1936 season. Regular opening batsman Jack Lee had been allowed to leave Somerset to become coach at Mill Hill School, and Gimblett was promoted to open the innings against the Indians in Somerset's first match of the season. He made 103 and then an unbeaten 46 as Somerset won the match by nine wickets after making the Indians follow on. In the very next match against Lancashire at Old Trafford, he did even better with 93 in the first innings and an unbeaten 160 in the second, when he held on with the Somerset tail-enders to deny Lancashire victory. That gave him fleetingly a season's batting average of more than 200, and he followed that up with a third century a week later against the admittedly weak Northamptonshire side. This form earned Gimblett selection for the Test trial match for the series against the Indian team, a match between North and South at Lord's that featured a mix of established Test players and up-and-coming young players. Gimblett failed in the match, scoring just four runs in his only innings. He was nonetheless selected for the England team for the first Test of the 1936 series in an experimental opening partnership with Arthur Mitchell of Yorkshire.