CRANE’S IN THE FRAME FOR ASHES
Spinner will make debut today
EnglanD are ready to hand an international debut to 20-year-old leg-spinner Mason Crane — with a view to a possible first test cap later in the summer.
Crane, who comes with a stamp of approval from his hero Shane Warne, will play at his home ground — hampshire’s ageas Bowl — in the first of three twenty20 internationals against South africa. england are understood to be willing to pitch him into the test series against West indies in September.
With the ashes to follow, the stakes could hardly be higher for a young man whose combative approach to one of the hardest skills in the game has caught the eye of the selectors.
‘he’s still very young but we want to see what he’s about,’ said captain eoin Morgan.
‘and we’ll find out: he’s going to come up against aB de Villiers. Brendon McCullum played for Middlesex against hampshire last year and got hold of Mason a couple of times, but he had tricks to come back, and the captain stuck with him. that impressed me.’
Crane, who also made a good impression during the 50-over north v South series in the uae earlier this year, fell in love with leg-spin after watching Warne on tV during the 2005 ashes. in March he claimed five wickets during a one- off appearance in australia’s first-class Sheffield Shield for new South Wales against South australia — later earning a ribbing from hampshire team- mates when he described the awarding of his nSW cap as the proudest moment of his career.
Crane is likely to be the only fresh face in this evening’s series opener against a South africa side resting several big names ahead of next month’s four-test series. But, with england keen to take a look at new talent ahead of the next World twenty20 in three years, Dawid Malan, tom Curran, liam livingstone and Craig Overton are all likely to win their first caps at taunton or Cardiff. it has only been a week since Morgan’s team made their Champions trophy semi-final exit at the hands of Pakistan, but the captain insists the swift turnaround was no bad thing. ‘it helps if you can go straight back into it,’ he said. ‘ to get back on the horse is good.’ that includes Jason roy, who will open with alex hales after being omitted for the Pakistan game after a poor run of 50-over form. Meanwhile, Morgan is keen to replicate the intensity of knockout cricket by taking part in more tri- series events. england play a three-way twenty20 series against australia and new Zealand early next year and he will lobby for another to be introduced next summer — possibly involving australia and india. anil Kumble has quit as india coach after the defeat to Pakistan in the Champions trophy. Kumble claimed his ‘partnership’ with Virat Kohli had become ‘ untenable’ and that the captain had ‘reservations with his ‘style’.