Murphy enters the fray with Australia questioning spin

For the second time in little more than a week, Todd Murphy is hoping to play his first Test on home soil at a time when the role of spin in Australia has come onto stark focus.

This Ashes currently has the joint fewest wickets for spin of any Test series played in Australia featuring at least three matches, and eight of those came in Adelaide, the only contest of the four so far that has had a significant element of spin.

Nathan Lyon bowled two overs in Perth, was left out for the day-night Test in Brisbane then, after he was injured, Murphy had to warm the bench at the MCG when Australia went with an all-pace attack in what became another two-day game - the first ever in Australia without a single over of spin - which has left CA executives praying for a Test which goes the distance in Sydney. England have yet to play Shoaib Bashir, leaving spin in the hands of Will Jacks for the last three matches.

"I don't think going into the series there was ever that planning or idea that spin wouldn't play a role," Murphy said. "I think it's sort of just been how it's eventuated. I think it'll evolve from year to year. Next year it could be completely different."

The days are long gone of the annual debate about playing two spinners at the SCG. That has only happened twice in the last 20 years: when Steve O'Keefe partnered Lyon against West Indies in 2016-17 and then Ashton Agar with Lyon against South Africa in early 2023, partly as an experiment ahead of the India tour which followed. Since 2018, when the WACA dropped off the calendar, the SCG has the highest average of spinners in the country of the regular Test venues.

The expectation is that Murphy, whose previous seven Tests have all come overseas, will get his opportunity although three days out the pitch had a significant covering of grass. There has been some turn on offer in the BBL - this is Murphy's home ground for that competition where he plays for Sydney Sixers - but he only bowled 12 overs in the Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales earlier in the season.

"I think it definitely can spin," he said. "We've played on some BBL wickets here where it has taken spin. I've only played a couple of Shield games and don't think it's ever done anything extraordinary out there. I don't think recently it's been massive spin but there's still been a big part of the game that spin played."

The declining role of spin in Tests in Australia has come at a time when stocks are as strong as they have been for some time. Alongside Murphy, Western Australia offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli pushed hard to be considered as Lyon's replacement, Matt Kuhnemann has impressed overseas for Australia while legspinner Mitchell Swepson is not completely out of the picture. In the Sheffield Shield, this season's collective spin average of 34.16 is the third-lowest of the last decade.

Murphy, who has taken 10 wickets at 23.70 for Victoria this season, is not downbeat about the future of the craft in the country but conceded that the role will not always be about spinning a team to victory late in the game.

"Shield cricket over the last couple of years, which is what I've had the main experience in, has evolved a little bit to be more seam friendly," he said. "I think that comes from just the importance of results in four-day cricket and spin probably just doesn't break up enough in four days.

"So they've probably gone down the path of trying to make it speed up at the start of the game, but I still think you look across all games and spin still plays a massive part. So there's always a role there for you to play, it might just not be day four and bowling 30 overs to spin your team to victory, but it still feels like you've always got a part to play in the game.

"I think I've probably learnt that ... your job's not always to come on and take wickets. It might be to play a holding role for four or five overs for the quick so they can have a break and then come back. And that can be just as important. I think you've got to find ways to try and still be effective out there and still be able to play a role for what the team needs."

If Murphy does return to the Australia XI, it will be just his second Test since the end of the 2023 - a year which saw him play his first six matches - having featured once against Sri Lanka in early 2025. His previous experience of the Ashes saw England take him on aggressively at Headingley and The Oval, something he expects to continue this time around, although he claimed six wickets in the latter Test.

His rise to international cricket, with his debut in Nagpur being just his eighth first-class match, brought with it a sharp increase in workload which led to some shoulder problems and there were two seasons where he averaged over 40.

"I probably understood back then [when his Test career started] it was never going to be linear for me," Murphy said. "I was never going to keep my place in the team when Nathan came back and I was always going to have to go back through Shield cricket and keep developing.

"At that stage I was only 23 so I still felt like I had a long way to go to be at my best. I still feel like I'm trying to discover that as well and continuing to get better. It's been a couple of years there where I've just been working away and trying to find the best version of myself."