No time like the present as Mason Crane readies for Ashes debut in final Test

The 20-year-old Hampshire leg-spinner is set to replace Moeen Ali for England

The England management have been impressed with Crane’s enthusiasm and attitude in practice (Getty)

Mason Crane is ready for Test cricket, according to England coach Trevor Bayliss. The 20-year-old Hampshire leg-spinner is set to replace Moeen Ali for the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney, where he will have at least five daunting obstacles to overcome: his rawness at international level, his lack of match practice on this tour, an Australian batting line-up that will immediately attempt to hit him out of the attack, an Australian pace battery that will test his fragile batting technique against the short ball, and the short and doleful history of English leg-spin bowling that has seen many of his predecessors enjoy the briefest of careers.

The cautionary tales of Scott Borthwick, Chris Schofield and Ian Salisbury should serve as a counterweight to the justifiable Crane hype. In addition, whereas the turning Sydney tracks of old would encourage teams to play two spinners, Crane will find much less help from the surface than he would have done 20 or 30 years ago. Spinners have averaged 40 at the SCG since the turn of the century, and with Moeen desperately struggling for form, it would appear Crane will have to go it alone.

Still, Bayliss was keen to emphasise the positives. Crane impressed during the Twenty20 series against South Africa in June. And in contrast to Adil Rashid, who was abruptly discarded from the Test side despite taking 30 wickets over the winter, the England management have been impressed with Crane’s enthusiasm and attitude in practice. His time would appear to be now.

“There’s maybe no time like the present to find out,” Bayliss said. “We think he’s a guy that has got the goods, and the more he plays at this level, the better he will get. You have got to start somewhere.”

Crane did well in Sydney grade cricket last winter, earning a call-up to the New South Wales side, the state’s first overseas player in Sheffield Shield cricket since Imran Khan 30 years ago. So the conditions will not be entirely alien to him even if, as Bayliss explained, the pitch is not expected to turn appreciably until days four and five.

“Normally it’s been the case in the past that you can easily play two spinners,” Bayliss said. “But looking at the wicket on TV, it looked like it had a decent covering of grass. I think it will still spin towards the end of the game – it’s still the same soil – but we’ll just have to take a look.”

Crane certainly has the technique and the raw talent to make a success of his chance. Unlike many English leg-spinners, he is a genuine wrist-spinner, generating torsion from the rotation of his shoulder and wrist, rather than simply spinning the ball hard out of the front of the hand. He did some work in Brisbane with Stuart MacGill, another leg-spinner who generated most of his revolutions from the shoulder and wrist, and England will look to tap into MacGill’s expertise again this week.

Crane is set to feature in the fifth Test in Sydney (Getty)

His first-class bowling average of 44, at an economy rate of 3.9, is hardly going to give the Australians sleepless nights. But he has done much of his bowling in unhelpful early-season English conditions, and enjoys a much better record in July and August. He will doubtless go for plenty of runs. But for an England attack that has been exceptionally frugal but largely toothless during this series, Crane’s potential selection is an admission that they may need to try and “buy” a few wickets.

As for Moeen, Bayliss insisted he would be back. “Like any player, you go through highs and lows,” he said. “But just a couple of months ago, we were singing his praises as one of the best all-rounders in the world. Conditions are a bit different here, and it’s taken him longer than he would have liked to feel comfortable.

“He’s different to [Nathan] Lyon, who gets over-spin. Mo doesn’t, and things don’t happen as quickly, without the bounce that Lyon gets. Mo is a free spirit and one or two shots or wickets and he’ll be off and running. So I’m not concerned long term.”

Meanwhile, Bayliss called on England’s young players to make a more substantial case for selection. He believes Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and James Anderson could all feature in the 2019 Ashes, but that they would benefit from having to fight for their places.

Bayliss believes Ali will bounce back from his recent setback (Getty)

“There’s been some chat over the past few series about how we can start getting some of those younger players in,” Bayliss said. “We have seen [Craig] Overton and [Tom] Curran on this tour, and possibly Crane as well. From a batting point of view, we want to see some of the younger guys in England pushing a little harder to get in.

“[Liam] Livingstone, [Joe] Clarke and [Dan] Lawrence have all been mentioned in the past six months or so. But you need an opportunity to put them in. Have the guys that are here done enough to warrant further selection? Over a period of time, you want to see those guys not just putting pressure on, but getting opportunities for the longevity of the team's success.”