Mason Sidney Crane is an English cricketer who plays for the national side. He is a right-arm leg break bowler who bats right-handed.
Domestic career
Crane was a member of the Hampshire County Cricket Club academy since the age of 14, where he was under the guidance of former Hampshire spinner Rajesh Maru at Lancing College, West Sussex. Under Maru's guidance he impressed straight away despite concerns about his height and quickly he became a leg break bowler with good control as well as a googly. Crane has also been a member of Sussex Cricket League club Worthing Cricket Club since the age of 10, playing for the club's junior teams and also claiming 54 wickets for the Worthing CC 1st XI. Crane's good performance in the academy and guidance from Maru and Hampshire academy spin coach Darren Flint earned him a call-up to the England U17 development team. In the summer of 2014 Crane's continued good performances made him a regular in the Hampshire 2nd XI and earned him a call-up to the England U19s for the tour of Dubai and later the teams tour of Australia to play the Australia U19s. Crane was also called up to the first team squad for their trip to Worcestershire in the LV County Championship. Crane's performances in Australia were good, taking 2 wickets in 3 games in a series that England would lose 3-2. On 10 July 2015, Crane made his Hampshire 1st team debut in a Natwest T20 Blast fixture against Surrey at the Ageas Bowl. Coming on in the 9th over of Surrey's innings with them chasing 187 runs for victory, Crane bowled well dismissing Kumar Sangakkara and Vikram Solanki in his allocated 4 over to finish with figures of 2/35 as Hampshire won by 29 runs. In December 2015 he was named in England's squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. In October 2016 Crane went to Sydney to play for Gordon District Cricket Club in Sydney Grade Cricket. In March 2017, Crane made his debut for New South Wales, becoming the first overseas player to play for them since Imran Khan in 1984, where he took match figures of 5/116 and remained 15 not out when batting.
International career
In June 2017, he was named in England's Twenty20 International squad for the series against South Africa. He made his T20I debut for England against South Africa on 21 June 2017. In August 2017, he was named in England's Test squad for their series against the West Indies, but he did not play. In September 2017, he was named in England's Test squad for the 2017–18 Ashes series. He made his Test debut in the fifth Test against Australia on 4 January 2018. On Test debut, he took his maiden test wicket by dismissing Usman Khawaja, having previously had an appeal against the same player turned down because of a no ball. On 29 May 2020, Crane was named in a 55-man group of players to begin training ahead of international fixtures starting in England following the COVID-19 pandemic.
