Mason Crane is expected to become Hampshire’s youngest international at The Ageas Bowl tomorrow night.

The leg-spin sensation is likely to be handed his England debut in the opening match of the three-match series against South Africa (6.30pm).

Crane, who turned 20 in February, will usurp Danny Briggs - who was 20 years, ten months when he played his only ODI in 2012 - as Hampshire’s youngest international in any format.

He will also join an elite group of England cricketers - Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler - to have played a T20 international before their 21st birthday.

Eoin Morgan was effusive when discussing Crane in his pre-series presser at The Ageas Bowl.

“I have played against him a little bit,” said the England captain.

“I played against him last year, seen a lot of him on footage from the North v South games. He was very impressive.

“He’s still very young but we want to see what he is about.”

Asked whether he felt Crane had a good temperament, Morgan replied: “I think he has from what we have seen from him.

“We will see when he comes up against AB De Villiers and the like.”

Morgan was only 19 when he made his one-day international debut.

But only Broad and Stokes have played for England’s T20 side at a younger age than Crane who, with only five T20 appearances for Hampshire behind him, will also be his country’s least experienced T20 player since England’s inaugural international in the format, at The Ageas Bowl in 2005.

Crane is one of five uncapped players in the England squad, alongside Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tom Curran and Craig Overton.

With Crane the most likely debutant for the series opener on Wednesday, Morgan drew comparisons with Adil Rashid, while voicing his disappointment at Hampshire’s decision not to select him at the start of the season.

Asked if he was excited to have a young leg-spinner in the squad, he said: “Yes, it is such a difficult aspect to master and the earlier he gets into his apprenticeship the better.

“The worry is that he gets neglected if we play five or six championship games in the opening weeks of the season.

“You want him playing, a bit like Adil did at the start of his career, playing as much cricket as you can and around the world as well.

“He has all the tricks...I wouldn’t say I’m picking all of them but mystery like that takes time.

“He needs to feel comfortable in himself to play around with the ball and the seam a bit like Adil has changed over the years, you have to be brave enough to change something.

“He has tricks to come back with, normally as a youngster you bowl a bad over and you come off, but that impresses me.

“Having Adil in the team is awesome when he has tricks that deceive guys completely.

"If Mason can repeat that it would be pretty awesome.”