Rehan Ahmed missed Brendon McCullum's call. Instead, a WhatsApp message from the Test coach told him: 'you have been picked'.
It was a fitting way for Ahmed to learn that he had been selected to tour India. Although Ahmed is a 19-year-old English leg-spinner, his rise has been so miraculous that his presence, in whatever form, is now almost accepted as an everyday fact - except by the player himself. "I'm still shocked when I get picked," he says. "It's Test cricket, it's a big thing, I think about it every day. It is the most difficult match ever."
India is the country that even Shane Warne couldn't conquer; the greatest leg-spinner ever averaged 43.11 in Tests there. "I have accepted that it will be difficult," says Ahmed. "I will do my best. That's all I can control. I'm just looking forward to playing Test cricket again."
But after the five Tests in India, Ahmed will not return to the country for the Indian Premier League. With the certainty of a two-year central contract in England, he decided not to participate in the auction. Ahmed will use the period to enjoy a well-deserved longer break and hone a new delivery.
"The least I can do is make sure I'm fully ready to be whatever I can be for England. There's a lot of time for IPL and stuff if I get a chance again, and if I don't get a chance to do it, that's fine with me too.
"I've talked to a few people: if you want a long career, you don't want to burn out too quickly. Being ready for England is my main priority."
With Warnian mischief, Ahmed explains his plans to expand his repertoire. "I don't like to concentrate on new things during a match; I keep it as simple as possible. But I'm sure if I have two or three weeks off, I can put my head down and work on something special."
Warne, of course, loved to proclaim such things, which were usually a mirage: he once even claimed to have invented a mysterious 'disco ball'. Now Ahmed plans to try to master one of Warne's most celebrated deliveries - the flipper, which glides straight and fast and often sinks under the bat.
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"It could be a pinball machine," he reveals. "I think the pinball is a nice ball to have, especially in T20 cricket - even in Test cricket, the way things are going. Flipper is a nice ball to have, considering Warney also the way he bowled it, the way he set up batsmen.
For now, Ahmed's arsenal consists of four deliveries: "long-legged; slider-like, not yet a full slider; google; top spinner." Adil Rashid, meanwhile, has "about seven different leg spinners... Rash is just another level."
In England's Twenty20 series before Christmas in the Caribbean, the two leg-spinners bowled back-to-back, 16 years apart.
"I talk to Rash a lot about bowling," says Ahmed. "I don't like being told a lot of technical things. I'm more tactical, so in terms of field placements and plans. I talk about that more than footwork and forearm.
"We both understand that I am not the bowler that he is, he is not the bowler that I am - completely different, which makes it more interesting."
One difference is that Ahmed can bowl faster. "I'll try to keep my pace a bit in India: if the wicket is doing what it's doing, less time to react is the best way to go."
Rashid's best advice is: "Just be yourself, you are here because of what you did, not because of what I did."
When Rashid made his international debut in 2009, the English concept of leg spin was like a toddler's knowledge of Latin grammar. By educating English cricket on wrist spin, Rashid has created a more fertile environment for the new generation.
Ahmed said: "Rash went through a lot, I think, when he was younger: he got picked and then he didn't play for England for six, seven years. And then he came back and became the best in the world. So he made a path for us."
This era's focus on strengthening players is ideally suited to a teenage leg-spinner. When Ahmed became England's youngest-ever Test cricketer and marked the occasion with seven wickets in the match in Karachi in December 2022, Ben Stokes encouraged him to define his own pitches. "I really believe that if I had been in a different Test team I wouldn't have felt as comfortable," he said.
Ahmed's biggest debt, however, lies with his parents. From about "three weeks" old he played cricket with a plastic bat in the family home in Nottingham. As Ahmed's progress continued, his parents took him around the country. "Mom has probably been the busiest of all of us. My father actually sacrificed his life for us: he worked, trained us, took us to training. It's nice to see that he can now travel and just watch cricket.
'We'd go to Surrey or to Manchester and I'd get out for a golden duck. Coming home sometimes felt like a pointless journey, but my father always did it."
At the age of 11, Rehan asked if he could get a console. "My dad said to me, 'Do you want to play console games? Or do you want to play cricket?' I wanted to play console games, but I said cricket. After that I just fell in love with the game.
"My father said, 'You can't be the best at something if you don't fully commit yourself to it'."
To this day, Ahmed does not have a console.
Instead, Ahmed embraced Cavaliers and Carrington, the Nottingham Premier League club where he plays alongside his two brothers. Raheem, a 20-year-old left-arm all-rounder, is "the most naturally gifted of us all" and is hoping to break into the professional game after two injury-plagued years. Farhan, an off-spinner who is about to turn 16 - "he thinks he's Nathan Lyon but he doesn't like to show it off" - is now in South Africa for the Under-19 World Cup, accompanied by their father. Last year, Ahmed found time to play two matches for Cavaliers as a specialist batsman alongside his family.
"I love cricket," Ahmed said. "Playing club cricket also makes me more excited to play international cricket. I think if I only play internationals it might feel like a job. But the enjoyment you get from club cricket, playing with your friends, playing at a club you've played at for years, and all the jokes - it's all a big part of it. I would always try to be available for club cricket as much as possible.
"I just want to be on the field with friends and stuff - brothers, dad, friends... The Cavaliers group is like a family."
When he bowls, Ahmed's approach fits the name of his club. "I just really freestyle it - it depends on how I'm feeling," he said. 'If I know someone is going to try to hit me, I will obviously try to put a plan in place. But other than that I just go by my feelings."
Normally he decides which delivery to bowl "very late, unless I know, this man can't hit this ball". In all three formats, both with bat and ball, Ahmed's approach is similar: "Play your own way, but be smart about it. So that is the basic message."
For all the claims that Ahmed will ultimately be a better batsman than bowler - he has a first-class average of 32 and hopes to eventually bat "six or seven" for England - he has yet to make an impact with the bat in international cricket. In 11 innings, Ahmed's top score is 15.
"I don't feel like I performed the way I should," he said. "I'm still trying to work every ball for six for the time being. But hopefully during the India tour I will make sure that if I get an opportunity, it counts." Ahmed admires the Indian Suryakumar Yadav: "The way he hits it is correct."
Ahmed's belief that "technique is very overrated, as long as you see the ball and try to hit it" is in line with his hero, Kevin Pietersen. He admired "the way he handled everything, his charisma, his presence". In a different era, he still "played the way he wants to play."
Before Ahmed's Test debut, he told Rob Key that Pietersen was his favorite cricketer. "I got a message from him later that night, which was nice," he said.
Despite all the changes in his life in the thirteen months since, the core of Ahmed's world has remained unchanged. His Muslim faith "keeps me sane," Ahmed said. "It's the most important aspect of my life, it's why I'm here. Everything is secondary - family, cricket, everything - after faith."
When Ahmed is not traveling the world playing cricket, he still lives at home in Nottingham, where he stays in his boyhood room. 'I like that room, it's all good. I have the hardest bed in the world, it's like a rock."
This is where Ahmed dreamed of playing for England as a boy. Now he dares to imagine something even better. "Hopefully we'll have all three Ahmeds playing," he said.
