However illogical it may have been, September’s one-day county cup final at Lord’s used to be the springboard. Any player performing well had an added chance of making the England Test squad that would be chosen in the next 48 hours.
Now Hampshire’s 20 year-old leg-spinner Mason Crane hopes a good spell or two on T20 Finals Day will catapult him into the England XI at Lord’s for the third Test against West Indies on Thursday – he is already in the squad of 13 – and then on to the plane for the Ashes in Australia.
“Obviously I was here [Edgbaston] for the first Test of the series a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve spent a bit of time here recently, and hopefully it’s another good occasion like that was,” Crane said. “Obviously I’ve had a bit of big-game experience this year as well, and I think that will stand me in good stead.”
In acclimatising with England, Crane has got to know Saqlain Mushtaq, England’s spin-bowling coach. “I’ve learned a lot from Saqqy, built a good relationship over the last few weeks, and I’m looking forward to having another week with him at Lord’s,” Crane said.
Five factors are conspiring to work in Crane’s favour. The first is that the England management like his fizz. He was picked for two T20 internationals against South Africa, bowling tidily in the first on his home ground of the Ageas Bowl, while in the deciding third match of the series, at Cardiff, his head did not drop when he was mauled by AB de Villiers – and it was Crane’s googly that dismissed the world-class batsman.
This good impression was enhanced on Tuesday afternoon at Headingley. England have had Crane in their squad for the last two Tests, replacing Liam Dawson, and have gradually got him used to the Test match atmosphere – to the point where he was sent on as 12th man during the West Indian run chase, which became ever more threatening under the guidance of Shai Hope.
At first sight he was a young man out of his depth. He should have backed up a throw from Ben Stokes, and he soon hurried from the field. Then he came back, briefly, and took what was probably the best catch by an England sub since the legendary one by a Nottinghamshire ground-staff lad called Sydney Copley in an Ashes Test in 1930. Crane ran and then leapt to his left to catch a hit from Roston Chase at full stretch.
The third factor in Crane’s favour is the pitch for Finals Day. It looks like a holiday-maker returning to Birmingham airport after a month in Spain: very brown but rather tired. And with all three of Saturday’s games to be played on it, the county who “take pace off” and bowl spin will be rewarded.
Fourthly, Hampshire are so well-blessed with spinners that Crane should not feel the weight of responsibility too heavily. They have two steady bankers in Dawson and Shahid Afridi, with his brisk top-spinners – not to mention his role as opening batsman, in which he hammered a hundred in the quarter-final against Derbyshire. Crane can come on and take wickets when the old pros have tied down Birmingham Bears, and the other finalists if Hampshire make it through the first semi-final.
“It’s been great to pick his brains because he’s obviously played a lot of cricket,” Crane said about Afridi. “He’s a very experienced player, and he’s still got it like he showed in the quarter-final.”
Finally, Crane has the Unique Selling Point of having already played a first-class match in Australia, for New South Wales at Adelaide. Leg-spin is the department of the game in which England, traditionally, have been least equipped – real, ripped leg-spin, which bites on hard true pitches, not rolled leg-breaks like Eric Hollies used to bowl at Edgbaston, for Warwickshire and England, before the main stand was named after him.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind – going out there to play grade cricket and ending up in the New South Wales team, which was just an amazing thing, I never thought it was even an option really,” Crane said. “I went out there on the back of an average season, I’d heard grade cricket was tough, which it was, and I was just looking to do well in that really. Confidence grew as I worked hard with Stuart MacGill, and obviously towards the end I found a bit of form and ended up in the state side, and that was just the best experience ever.”
Crane’s white-ball bowling appears more advanced than his red-ball: his 70 first-class wickets have cost almost 42 runs each; and while he took five South Australian wickets for NSW, at the impressive average of 23, he did not bowl one maiden in 28 overs, so England could not expect him to keep it tight. But limited-overs and Test cricket have been confused before.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/...finals-day-flourish-secure-england-test-spot/
Such a beautiful day, it's boiling !
beautiful, held the pose and all 
bloody spotlight hogger
ball = 
is in my top 2 favourite England batsman ever
</p>— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) <a href="https://twitter.com/benstokes38/status/904066589066186753">September 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
