"I've seen a few things on Twitter asking if I actually exist," jokes John Turner. Five England squads and 15 months after his first call-up, he finally earned his debut in Antigua this week.
A first appearance came on Thursday and a first wicket arrived on Saturday, when Brandon King's flashing drive was brilliantly caught by Jordan Cox at backward point.
"It's nice to have been involved in the last few months, but now to get that opportunity to actually play is really exciting," explains Turner. "To get your first wicket is really cool and is probably a moment I'll never forget."
One of the founding members of England's 'pace project', Turner was plucked from obscurity last year when he went from professional debut for Hampshire to an England call-up in 70 days. The ECB have since doubled-down on their punt by handing Turner another 12-month development contract.
"I think the whole 'pace project', as they call it, is really exciting," Turner said. "There's quite a lot of us that's in and around. I think just being in and around the squads is really exciting to try and put my name in the hat for a spot on the Test team, or the T20 team. I think I'm still very raw, I'm very young and still have a lot to learn."
Turner's two outings so far have been a qualified success. On debut, he beat King and Evin Lewis regularly without reward, while in his second appearance he dismissed both within his first seven balls. In both instances, you looked at the scoreboard and were surprised to see he'd conceded his runs at 5.2 an over and then 7 an over. But a couple of pulled sixes on each occasion will do that.
Handed his cap by Jofra Archer, the Bajan-born quick announced to the world that Turner was the best player of PIG, the football-based headers and volleys warm-up game England play, in the squad. This was a lie. Turner is bottom of the pile.
Which, if anything, is a relief. A better hockey player than cricketer growing up, Turner completed his degree in economics and finance at Exeter University over the summer which he had been studying for full-time. A year ago, if you walked through the team hotel of this same tour, chances are you'd have seen Turner with his head buried in his books and a laptop with a coffee on the go.