England international Crane returns after regaining fitness following an ankle injury in the pre-season fixture against Munster. He has been given a place among the replacements as Thomas Waldrom retains the No8 shirt.
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill also includes scrum-half Jason Spice among the replacements after his arrival on a short-term loan with Ben Youngs unavailable and Sam Harrison injured.
James Grindal, Billy Twelvetrees, Ben Woods and Martin Castrogiovanni come into the starting XV as Youngs, Toby Flood, Tom Croft and Dan Cole are on England duty. Marcos Ayerza returns to the front row following injury to Boris Stankovich.
Leicester Tigers (v Gloucester, Kingsholm, Saturday 5.30pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Matt Smith
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Billy Twelvetrees
9 James Grindal
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Ed Slater
5 George Skivington
6 Craig Newby
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Julian White
18 Peter Bucknall
19 Steve Mafi
20 Jordan Crane
21 Jason Spice
22 George Ford
23 Horacio Agulla
Former Tigers back-rower Brett Deacon and international lock Jim Hamilton are included in the Gloucester line-up against their old club.
Gloucester Rugby: 15 Olly Morgan; 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Jonny May, 11 James Simpson-Daniel; 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson; 1 Nick Wood, 2 Scott Lawson, 3 Paul Doran-Jones; 4 Jim Hamilton, 5 Alex Brown; 6 Brett Deacon, 7 Andrew Hazell, 8 Luke Narraway (c)
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Akapusi Qera, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Lesley Vainikolo
