After 1,000 days in the international wilderness, is now the time for Mason Crane?

INTERVIEW - SAM MORSHEAD: The strange summer of 2020 was a watershed for Crane, who it is a strain to believe is still only 23 years old, given his vast experience of professional sport's ruthless undulations

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It has been 1,020 days since Mason Crane last pulled on an England shirt but a potentially hectic winter schedule offers his best route to a return yet, and he is ready to make the most of the opportunity.

The strange summer of 2020 was a watershed for Crane, who it is a strain to believe is still only 23 years old, given his vast experience of professional sport’s ruthless undulations. 

Having rehabilitated his body from two stress fractures and a side strain, which ruined two years of a blossoming career, Crane spent August and September rehabilitating his reputation as a dynamic, versatile legspinner. 

He finished with 14 wickets at 13.57 apiece in the Bob Willis Trophy, responding well to the challenge of being his county’s primary spinner after Nathan Lyon’s proposed stint in Southampton fell through, before returning nine more scalps and a miserly economy rate of 6.6 in the T20 Blast.

Now, with a fresh two-year contract signed at Hampshire and his body as sturdy as it has felt for some time, Crane can look forward with both purpose and expectation.

“It’s been a tough couple of years and this year I was determined to do better. I was in a lot better place body-wise and that helped my mental game as well,” he tells The Cricketer.

“This year I was really happy with how I bowled, it was just a shame it was such a short season.

“I really enjoyed it and, from where I’ve been, that’s a really big step; to be able to play every game and contribute is a really big step for me.

^{Mason Crane enjoyed an excellent summer with Hampshire}

“I’m not really sure where it puts me. I can be pretty happy that I’ve done what I can. It was a short season, which was a shame because I’d have loved to have carried on, but I think I did what I could and hopefully that does enough for me to cast some eyes towards me.

“It’s difficult to think too far ahead with things like that because you never know. I was really happy with how the season went and whatever comes after that is great… if nothing ever comes again I’m happy knowing I performed and contributed for Hampshire, which is what I’m here for.

Even if Crane was for some reason not on Ed Smith’s radar after his performances this summer, the simple logistics of the next few months would surely propel him to somewhere near the front of the queue.

A six white-ball match tour of South Africa has already been confirmed and Tests against India will follow from late January - either on the subcontinent or, given the Covid-19 situation in India, in the emptiness of the UAE. In between, talks continue about a two-Test trip to Sri Lanka and a T20 series in Pakistan; if all go ahead, England will send two separate teams to play concurrently for the first time since 1930.

With squad sizes expected to be increased as a result of biosecurity measures, it may be that up to 40 players are required to represent their country at once - in an area of the world that cries out for additional spin bowling options.

"I obviously was very young when I made my Test debut, but I'm only just now realising how young I was"

For Crane, who even before his impressive summer had been involved in a 55-man training camp with the senior men’s set-up, the opportunity could barely be better to add to either the two T20I caps earned in 2017 or that solitary Test appearance in dead-rubber defeat at the SCG nearly three years ago.

“I wouldn’t say it’s too soon; I feel in a really good place and I would be ready if that was to happen. But at the same time I’m not going to be downbeat if I end up not going,” Crane says. “If opportunities do arise, I feel like my game is in a good place and I am in a good place.

“I’m excited about what the future holds, whatever the future holds. All I can do, whenever I play, is bowl well and let the rest take care of itself.

“I’d like to think it’s certainly an advantage, being a legspinner and being able to spin the ball both ways. I would hope that stands me in good stead, but at the same time it’s not my decision to make.

“I have to put myself in a position where, if required, I can come on on any wicket and do a job. My skillset does give a slight advantage to more spinning wickets but it’s not my decision to make.”

So how would Crane fit into the current England selection jigsaw?

Dom Bess holds Test spinner status after the behind-closed-doors summer, with Jack Leach waiting incredibly patiently in the wings, while Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali are go-to options for white-ball captain Eoin Morgan.

^{Crane last played for England in January 2018}

Matt Parkinson at Lancashire appears to be next in line, but Crane’s performances in both formats will not have gone unnoticed by the selectors - especially given the relationship the Hampshire man has with ECB performance director Mo Bobat, which stretches back to Crane’s time in the England Under 19s.

Bobat and Crane remain in semi-regular dialogue, and that - added to the young spinner’s inclusion in the training group at the start of the summer - suggests that a call-up might not be that far away.

“It’s nice to have that contact there to understand that not all is lost,” he says. 

“It’s been a little while since I was involved in an England squad but it’s not all lost. I’m still pretty young and I’ve got some time.

“The message is to keep doing what I’m doing: improving and putting performances in. Then we’ll see where that gets me.”

England fly to South Africa on November 16, with the players set to be told who is part of the squad in the next fortnight. Crane is training daily in case he gets the call. 

If it doesn’t come - and he appreciates the ferocious competition faced particularly at white-ball level - he will hold out hope for the new year.

There is, of course, the possibility that his winter will be spent keeping fit and turning his arm over indoors. But even that would not faze him.

“I obviously was very young when I made my Test debut, but I’m only just now realising how young I was,” he says, pointedly.

“I still step into most changing rooms and am still the youngest one; that’s a telltale sign that I’ve got a lot of time on my side.

“I’m young enough to make mistakes and come back from it. Time is there and if I keep improving and keep putting in performances like I did this year the rest will take care of itself.”

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