Mason Crane backed by Eoin Morgan ahead of likely England debut

Hampshire’s Mason Crane is expected to make his England Twenty20 international debut at his home ground on Wednesday as skipper Eoin Morgan revealed he been very impressed with the young leg-spinner.

The 20-year-old was one of five uncapped players called up to the squad to take on South Africa in a three-match series.

Crane, who plies his trade at the Ageas Bowl, has progressed quickly through the ranks to take his place among fellow newcomers Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tom Curran and Craig Overton – all of whom will be hoping for a chance to impress in the absence of more established names.

Having only featured in five T20 games for Hampshire, Crane has managed to impress in other formats and Morgan is ready to give him a baptism of fire against some of South Africa’s big-hitters.

He said: “I have played against him a little bit. I played against him last year, seen a lot of him on footage from the North v South games. He was very impressive. He is still very young but we want to see what he is about.”

Asked whether he felt Crane had a good temperament, Morgan replied: “I think he has from what we have seen from him. We will see tomorrow when he comes up against AB De Villiers and the like.”

With several regulars rested from international duty, the England side will be looking to show their nous in the shortest form of the game.

Asked for the one thing he was looking for in the series against the Proteas, Morgan replied: “I’d like to see some of the younger guys come in and take their chance. Throughout the last couple of years we have had opportunities that have come up and we had some very good players take them.

“Jonny Bairstow is a great example of that and has always scored runs every time he has come in. I think we need to see even more guys come in and take chances like that.”

While Morgan would not be drawn on which of his new talent would start the opener, he revealed the quintet will all be given their debuts over the course of the three matches.

“It is easier to say that, within the series, everyone is going to get a game,” he said when asked how many of the new players could play.

“This is an opportunity, we don’t have a T20 World Cup for two and a bit years, until 2020. So it is an opportunity, particularly when the senior players are rested, to have a look at these new guys.

“The positive is we do have strength in depth and now matching that with opportunity is something we will see in the series.”

With Crane the most likely debutant for the series opener on Wednesday, Morgan drew comparisons with Adil Rashid.

Asked if he was excited to see a young spinner, he said: “Yes, it is such a difficult aspect to master and the earlier he gets into his apprenticeship the better. The worry is that he gets neglected if we play five or six championship games in the opening weeks of the season.

“You want him playing, a bit like Adil did at the start of his career, playing as much cricket as you can and around the world as well.

“He has all the tricks…I wouldn’t say I’m picking all of them but mystery like that takes time.

“He has tricks to come back with, normally as a youngster you bowl a bad over and you come off, but that impresses me.

“Having Adil in the team is awesome when he has tricks that deceive guys completely – you can do what you want with the field – if Mason can repeat that it would be pretty awesome.”