England spinner Mason Crane reflects on his challenging year after Ashes bow

Exclusive interview: Since making his debut against Australia in the final Test of the Ashes in Sydney, Crane has endured the kind of year that can make or break you as a sportsperson

Mason Crane is the youngest specialist spinner to play for England since 1928 (Getty)

It’s a freezing day on the south coast and, in keeping with the January weather, Mason Crane is kitted out in coat and beanie, despite sitting inside the atrium of Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl pavilion.

“There’s no heating in the indoor school,” he says. “Everyone is in snoods, hats, you name it. You go in there in the morning and it’s like an ice box.”

It’s not the first time in the past 12 months that the England leg-spinner has been left out in the cold.

Since making his debut against Australia in the final Test of the Ashes in Sydney – becoming the youngest specialist spinner to play for England since 1928 in the process - Crane has endured the kind of year that can make or break you as a sportsperson.

As he sits down to talk through his experience, though, it’s clear that his injury problems have done the former rather than the latter.

Crane in action Down Under (Getty)

Crane began bowling again in December, the first time he had sent a ball down in anger in over six months, after a stress fracture of the back first ruled him out of England’s tour of New Zealand in March and then brought a premature end to his county season in early June.

“It’s the longest I’ve been without bowling,” he says. “I’ve never gone more than 10 before. You definitely don’t lose it. After five or 10 minutes it just feels completely normal again. I can only bowl a certain amount of overs for the first bit (of his recovery) but you just want to carry on.

“I guess I’m going to have to be patient.”

Biding his time is something that Crane has had to do since that Ashes bow. He took 1 for 193 at the SCG, figures that hardly to do justice to just how threatening he looked as the Aussie racked up an eye-watering 649 for seven.

Unsurprisingly, it was the only innings they required to win the match as England’s batting crumbled second time around.

Handed his Test cap by Graeme Swann on the outfield of one of world cricket’s most iconic grounds, Crane's bowling - rather than his eventual figures - won him a host of admirers, Shane Warne among them.

“He’s very aggressive,” said the former Aussie leggie. “He is feisty, looks to get into the batsman’s space. He won’t back down from the challenge.”

Shane Warne is just one of his admirers (Getty)

Crane had in fact made his Sheffield Shield debut at an earlier age than Warne, becoming the first overseas player to play for New South Wales since Imran Khan in 1985, when he ran out for the state in March 2017.

That, in part, contributed to his selection for an Ashes series that most would rather forget. For the wide-eyed Crane, however, it’s something that will stay with him forever.

“I loved it,” he says. “It was really tough but I loved every minute of it. Obviously we lost 4-0 but there were moments there, things I learnt, that you’ll never get elsewhere. It was just amazing.

“When Cookie got his hundred in Melbourne – that’s probably my favourite moment in a cricket dressing room, and I wasn’t even playing. We were all in tears, it was unbelievable.

It has been a challenging year for Crane (Getty)

“It didn’t quite dawn on me how huge it was until it all started. It all got going at Brisbane and it was like ‘wow, it doesn’t get bigger than this’. Every city we went to was like a circus. But that’s the thing for me – that’s the hardest cricket is ever going to be. You’re under the microscope, you can’t even go out for dinner.

“How do you go out for dinner with Stuart Broad? He’s 6’7”, he gets noticed everywhere. But if that’s as hard as it gets I’ve got great confidence that I can live with it because I came through the other side.”

The main problem Crane has as he looks to remind England of just what he’s capable of is ensuring that he’s on the park and bowling enough overs to take the wickets he needs to get back in contention.

Despite taking 15 wickets for his county in 50 over cricket last season, Crane last played a match in the County Championship in September 2017. Since making his First Class debut in July 2015, he has never played a match for his county in April, which given the lopsided nature of four-day cricket scheduling means he has effectively missed almost as much as a third of the Championship season before bowling a ball in anger.

Crane in action for Hampshire last summer (Getty)

“For me, I want to make it non-negotiable that I’m playing,” he says.

“That’s the thing as a spinner in England, though, you can be in the international team one week and then not playing for your county side the next. I want to show that I’m better than anybody else and that I can take wickets at any time of the year on any surface. Turning up and knowing your playing every game. That’s the dream."

Time, of course, is on his side, with Crane not turning 22 until next month. That said, he baulks at the suggestion that spin bowlers inevitably get better with age.

“I’m not going to suddenly wake-up on my 28th birthday and suddenly be a much better bowler,” he jokes.

“Who knows, this could be as good as I get or might get a lot better, you just don’t know do you.”

As we finish our conversation, the shutters come down on the deserted bar behind our seats – a clear signal that dry January is being taken seriously in these parts.

If Crane returns fit and firing this summer, though, it’s unlikely that last orders will be called on his England career anytime soon. His is a glass that’s definitely half-full, rather than half-empty.