Gimblett's status as one of the coming men of English cricket was confirmed by his selection on the Players' side for the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's, one of the centrepieces of the English cricket season. He was not a success, making just three and one. But he retained his place in the England team for the second Test at Old Trafford, opening this time with the Kent batsman Arthur Fagg, who was making his Test debut. This time, Gimblett failed, making just nine in England's single innings. The carrot at the end of the 1936 season was selection for the MCC team to tour Australia and New Zealand in the 1936–37 season; the side was picked in early August, and Gimblett was not named in it, the young opening batsmen selected being Fagg and Charles Barnett, who replaced Gimblett for the third and final Test match against India. In fact, Gimblett's form for the second half of the 1936 season was patchy, and from the high of averaging 200 with the bat in May he ended up at the end of the season with an aggregate of 1608 runs at an average of 32.81, half a dozen runs per innings less than both Fagg and Barnett. Wisden noted that he had achieved "nothing of note" in important matches apart from his "dashing" 67 in his first Test. It went on: "As his slip-fielding fell rather below international standard, it became abundantly clear that he could not yet be labelled an England player." And it repeated criticism of a year before about lack of discretion: "Using the horizontal bat with a great amount of freedom, he frequently fell, through lack of discrimination in selecting the right ball to hit, to catches on the leg-side. Still, most of his faults were due to inexperience, and as he is only 22 years of age his career will be watched with interest beyond the confines of his own county."