England captain Eoin Morgan is ready to hand Hampshire's Mason Crane his international Twenty20 debut against South Africa tonight.
The 20-year-old leg-spinner has burst onto the scene in the last 12 months and is set to make his England bow in front of his home crowd at the Ageas Bowl.
England have called up a quintet of uncapped players - Crane, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tom Curran and Craig Overton - for the three-match T20 series, with a number of more established names rested between the Champions Trophy and a Test series against the Proteas.
And Morgan, who said all five men will be given a chance to play across the three matches, is backing the newcomers to shine.
Asked whether he felt Crane had a good temperament, Morgan said: "I think he has from what we have seen from him. We will see (on Wednesday) when he comes up against AB de Villiers and the like.
"I have played against him a little bit. I played against him last year, I've seen a lot of him on footage from the North v South games. He was very impressive. He is still very young but we want to see what he is about."
It is the development of the new, raw talent which excited Morgan more than anything on the eve of the opening clash in Hampshire.
"Within the series, everyone is going to get a game," he said.
"I'd like to see some of the younger guys come in and take their chance. Throughout the last couple of years we have had opportunities that have come up and we had some very good players take them.
"Jonny Bairstow is a great example of that and has always scored runs every time he has come in, and to grow even more strength in depth in the squad I think we need to see even more guys come in and take chances like that."
The visitors are also likely to make a number of changes to their side, having crashed out of the Champions Trophy at the group stage.
They will be captained by De Villiers, who said Crane was on their radar, and they will endeavour not be caught out by the international novice.
"I'm not sure what we are going to do against him yet. That will happen on the field once we get a feel," he said.
"We have analysed him and have got footage on him. We have seen his action and know more or less what to expect. He is not a completely foreign guy.
"To get behind his rhythm, that will happen on the pitch like it does with most bowlers, so we will see on the day what we can get out of him."
Source: PA
