Todd Raymond Murphy (born 15 November 2000) is an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. A right-arm

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...

bowler, Murphy made his first-class debut for Victoria in April 2021 and his Test debut for Australia in February 2023.

Early life

Murphy was born in

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and largest s ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and raised just across the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

Moama Moama ( or ) is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray River Council local government area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger town of Echuca in the neighbouring state of Vi ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. His father, Jamie Murphy, was a left-handed middle-order batsman who played eight seasons for St Kilda in Victorian Premier Cricket, where he was a teammate of

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...

. Murphy played for Moama Cricket Club as a junior, initially as a top-order batsman and medium-pace bowler. He transitioned to off spin in 2017 after being observed "stuffing around" in the nets by former Victorian leg-spinner,

Craig Howard Craig Howard (January 29, 1952 – January 20, 2017) was an American football coach and former player. At the time of his death he was head football coach at Southern Oregon University, a position he had held since 2011. Howard served as the head ...

. Murphy spent a season with Sandhurst Cricket Club in the Bendigo District Cricket Association before moving to St Kilda Cricket Club in 2018/19.

First-class and Test career

Murphy made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut on 10 March 2021, for

in the

2020–21 Marsh One-Day Cup The 2021 Marsh One-Day Cup was the 52nd season of the official List A domestic cricket competition being played in Australia. On 26 June 2020, Cricket Australia confirmed all the squads for the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. Western Australi ...

. Prior to his List A debut, Murphy was named in Australia's squad for the

2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 17 January to 9 February 2020. It was the thirteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be ...

. Murphy made his first-class debut on 3 April 2021, for Victoria in the

2020–21 Sheffield Shield season The 2020–21 Sheffield Shield season was the 119th season of the Sheffield Shield, the domestic first-class cricket competition in Australia. On 26 June 2020, Cricket Australia confirmed all the squads for the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. ...

, scoring 34 runs and taking one wicket. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

debut on 26 December 2021, for the

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

in the

2021–22 Big Bash League season The 2021–22 Big Bash League season or BBL, 11 was the eleventh season of the Big Bash League, the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was played from 5 December 2021 and finished on 28 January ...

. After just seven first-class matches, in 2023, Murphy was named as a member of the Australian Test squad for the team's tour of India. He was one of four spinners selected alongside

Nathan Lyon Nathan Michael Lyon (born 20 November 1987) is an Australian international cricketer. He made his Test debut in 2011 and plays domestic cricket for New South Wales. Lyon is an off spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batsman. Considered ...

Ashton Agar Ashton Charles Agar (born 14 October 1993) is an Australian cricketer who has played all forms of the game at international level. Agar plays domestically for Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers. A left-handed spin bowling all rounder, he ...

, and

Mitchell Swepson Mitchell Joseph Swepson (born 4 October 1993) is an Australian cricketer. A leg-spin bowler, he made his international debut for the Australia cricket team in June 2018, and plays for Queensland and the Brisbane Heat in Australian domestic cric ...

. In February 2023, Murphy made his Test debut at Nagpur and took figures of 7/124 from 47 overs. He played all four Test matches on the tour, finishing with 14 wickets.

2023 Ashes

In April 2023, Murphy was selected for the squad for the 2023 Ashes as the second spinner beyond Nathan Lyon. Following Lyon's return home with a calf injury, Murphy made his Ashes debut at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

where he took 1/49 from 9.3 overs. Following this Murphy was dropped for the 4th Test which was Australia's first test in 10 years without a spinner. Recalled for the 5th Test, Murphy took 2/22 from 6 overs in the first innings and 4/110 from 22.5 overs in the second.He also scored vital runs; his 34 in the first innings was instrumental in giving Australia a slender first innings lead and he scored 18 in the second innings.

Playing style

Murphy is a right-arm off spin bowler of brisk pace, delivering most of his deliveries in excess of 90 km/h. He bowls with a high, jaunty action that has been compared to that of former England spinner,

Graeme Swann Graeme Peter Swann (born 24 March 1979) is an English former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. Born in Northampton, he attended Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire. He was primarily a right-arm off-spinner, and also ...

. He is a left-handed batsman who bats in the tail, usually at number nine or ten. Murphy wears prescription glasses when batting, bowling and fielding, one of few Test cricketers to have done so.

Personal life

In 2022, Murphy was studying for a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science/Bachelor of Business (Sport Management) at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Todd 2000 births Living people Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Place of birth missing (living people) Sydney Sixers cricketers Australia Test cricketers Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut People from Echuca