Twenty20 bow for Crane

ENGLAND cricket captain Eoin Morgan is ready to hand Hampshire’s Mason Crane his international Twenty20 debut against South Africa tonight.

The 20-year-old leg spinner has burst onto the scene in the last 12 months and is set to make his England bow in front of his home crowd at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

England have called up a quintet of uncapped players, Crane, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tom Curran and Craig Overton, for the three-match T20 series, with a number of more established names rested between the Champions Trophy and a Test series against the Proteas.

And Morgan, who said all five men will be given a chance to play across the three matches, is backing the newcomers to shine.

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

“I played against him last year and I’ve 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.”

It is the development of the new, raw talent which excited Morgan more than anything on the eve of the opening clash in Hampshire.

“Within the series, everyone is going to play,” he said.

“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 had some very good players take them.

“Jonny Bairstow is a great example of that. He has scored runs every time he has come in.”

A dejected Andy Murray.