22-year-old off-spinner Todd Murphy etched his name in the history books as he became only the 4th off-spinner ever to take a five-wicket haul on his Test debut as the youngster almost single-handedly kept Australia alive in the Nagpur Test.
Todd Murphy’s wickets column included some of the biggest names in the world cricket: KL Rahul, R Ashwin, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and KS Bharat.
“It is going to be something that I’ll look back on for the rest of my life and be proud of,” Murphy said after the end of Day 2.
Murphy even outshined senior off-spinner Nathan Lyon and shared the second new ball with Cummins.
In this article, we will tell you 5 interesting things about Todd Murphy:
1. Murphy played in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup for Australia. He picked up four wickets in five games, with his best figures being 2-40.
After getting noticed by the national selectors, the youngster toured with Australia A to Sri Lanka last year and went to Chennai to train at the MRF academy with a select group of handpicked young Australian players.
2. The bespectacled off-spinner that is Todd didn’t have a desired first-class debut for Victoria, in 2021 against South Africa. Then only 20 years of age, Murphy returned with figures of 1/72 and 0/55, finishing with just 1 wickets in 47 overs.
3. Todd Murphy’s father, Jamie, played with the late Shane Warne! It has been learned that Todd’s father was a cricketer in Melbourne, and played with the local lad Shane Warne. In the early 1990s, Jamie and Warne played for St. Kilda.
4. As expensive it would have been, Murphy’s family had flown all the way from Australia to India to watch the rookie spinner make his debut. To make their experience sweeter and more memorable, they also got to watch Todd pick up a five-fer against the famed Indian batters.
Todd’s father, Jamie Murphy drove three hours from their town to Melbourne and then flew to Nagpur via Sydney and Bengaluru to watch his son make his Test debut. Todd’s brother Joel, uncle Troy, cousin Riley and partner Bec are all present at the venue.
5. The five-fer in Nagpur was indeed Murphy’s maiden five-wicket haul in red-ball cricket of first-class cricket! In his 7 first-class matches prior to his Test debut, Murphy picked 29 wickets with 3 four-wicket hauls, but failed to get a single five-fer. Well, he’d like it now that it was in his destiny to get his maiden five-fer in first-class cricket on his debut Test.
