Pat Brown and England’s other T20I debutants received their international caps from paceman Steve Finn ahead of the opening international with New Zealand in Christchurch.
Finn, who has so far picked up 254 international wickets in his career, delivered a message to Brown (pictured centre), Sam Curran (right) and Lewis Gregory before awarding them their caps.
The Middlesex player said: “For me, this cap represents two things. It represents your journey to this point. Everyone has sacrificed a lot, your family, friends, people around you.
“You, yourselves have sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to get to this point.
“The second thing is, moving forward from here, you’ve got a fantastic opportunity to do something.
“Getting to this point is a great thing but making something of it, and doing something special and being part of something special, which this group of players is doing at this moment, is a fantastic opportunity.
“So enjoy it. It’s going to be a challenge. It will be. But it wouldn’t be fun, if it wasn’t a challenge. But really enjoy it, savour it, make the most of it because these are the best days of your lives.”
Brown and England went onto win the opening game in the best of five game series (see separate report).
