STONE MASON

Aussie coach Johnston: Crane’s very solid. Few spinners look at home on our soil like he does

MASON CRANE can leave the Aussies in a spin this winter – if England take a punt on the young Hampshire leggie.

The 20-year-old looks likely to be named in England’s Ashes squad on Wednesday, the first time in 67 years that the touring party has included a leg-spinner. But Crane is as happy tearing up the history books as he is ripping through batting line-ups.

The Sussex-born spinner became the first overseas player to represent New South Wales in 32 years when he played for the Blues in March.

That put him in some pretty decent company, with Imran Khan being the state’s only other foreign recruit.

Blues’ coach Trent Johnston had no hesitation in picking Crane after he had taken 45 wickets in 11 matches for Gordon Cricket Club in Sydney.

Johnston (below) said: “He is a hugely impressive young guy.

“There are probably not a lot of English players, particularly leg-spinners, who have come over here and looked at home so quickly. Mason was the leading wicket-taker in grade cricket and we wanted some variety in our attack and he was that man.

“He had come along to a lot of our training sessions and I was massively impressed by him. We took a chance on him and he performed very, very well. We back our own, particularly in New South Wales.

“We’ve had two overseas players in our history. One of them was Imran Khan and now Mason is the other.

“I’m not surprised that he was called up by England this summer because he has a level head on his shoulders and knows what he wants to try to do. He’s an attacking leg-spinner. I can only judge him on what he did in Shield cricket, but he wasn’t flustered by anything.

“It will be the same if he gets a chance here in The Ashes.”

Johnston admits that New South Wales would have considered flying Crane back to Australia had the Blues reached the Sheffield Shield Final – a ringing endorsement of the impact he had in his only match.

England will hope he can work a similar miracle this winter as they prepare to make him the first leggie since Doug Wright in 1950/51 to be picked for an Ashes series. Scott Borthwick played a solitary Test against the Aussies in Sydney in 2014, but was not in England’s original touring party, and he has not played for his country since.

If Crane is on the plane, he has every chance of rekindling his love affair with Australia before the winter is out.

“He has shown he can hack it over here,” said Johnston.

“Showing you’re not fazed by certain situations is half the battle, particularly in Australia.”

After impressing Down Under once, he will be doubly keen to do it again – and give the Aussies a dose of the Blues.