Six weeks of summer, no cricket: Murphy's strange season

On December 23, Todd Murphy was riding a wave of momentum and excitement.

Three days after helping Sydney Sixers win the BBL derby against Thunder, the 25-year-old joined Australia's Test squad and looked set to play his first Test on home soil, in an Ashes series in his home city. It is the stuff every Victorian cricketer dreams of.

Remarkably, through no fault of his own and despite being fully fit, he did not bowl a ball in a competitive game again until he turned out for his club side St Kilda at Camberwell Sports Ground in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs on January 31.

He was not picked in either of the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney, with the latter becoming a talking point when Beau Webster spun the ball square in the third innings to claim three wickets with his part-time offspin and England's Will Jacks turned one through Steven Smith on the final day.

Murphy then returned to Sixers to find there was no place for him in the XI having formulated a winning combination while he was away with the Test squad.

"I haven't probably experienced that at all in my career, sort of not playing any cricket in the middle of a summer," Murphy told ESPNcricinfo on Wednesday. "It's hard watching everyone else play when it's peak summer, and you feel like it's cricket time and you're not playing. It's definitely a challenge.

"But I think the motivation never drifted and I always knew there was going to be a lot of cricket at the back half of the year as well. So there was still plenty of things to look forward to and to be able to build on. I just used it as a block to try and continue to get better.

"Still confident that the ball was coming out of my hand really nicely before I was going into the Test squad, and there's no reason for that to change."

He wasn't wrong. The form he showed pre-Christmas with Victoria, Australia A and Sixers that had him on the cusp of a Test recall was still there when returned to the MCG on Tuesday.

Murphy took 3 for 29 from 10 overs in Victoria's One-Day Cup win over Queensland. He ripped the heart out of the Bulls' strong middle order, knocking over recent Australia A team-mate Lachlan Hearne, Jimmy Peirson and Jack Wildermuth who was coming off a career-best BBL.

"Nice personally to be back out there and playing a competitive game of cricket again," Murphy said. "Felt like it's been a lot of net bowling over the last month. Nice to get some rewards as well. The ball come out of the hand nicely."

Murphy will get the red ball back in his hand at the MCG on Thursday and may get the chance to bowl to Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja as Victoria re-start their table-topping Sheffield Shield campaign against Queensland.

That he wasn't their team-mate in the Sydney Test, on a surface that ended up spinning prodigiously, was a source of frustration for many. Murphy, though, was pragmatic about it despite admitting there was envy there.

"The communication from the selectors and Ronnie [coach Andrew McDonald] the whole time was really clear, and I knew where I stood the whole time," Murphy said. "Obviously, as a player, you're super hopeful that it does go in your favor, but when it doesn't, it's just about being the best team man you can and supporting the boys and doing whatever you can to help win the Test match.

"Obviously, I would have loved to be a part of a Boxing Day Test and a New Year's Test, but there was no issue from my end.

"You get a little bit jealous, sitting there watching the ball spin out of the footmarks. That's what you want to do, and that's what you grow up watching, and that's where the spinner comes into their own. So you love those opportunities when you get them, but it wasn't for me that game, and that's fine. I still look at the bigger picture, and it's great to be back around the group. Just keep evolving and hopefully it's not the last time I'm there."

His omission sparked a broader conversation about the role of spinners in first-class and Test cricket in Australia given Nathan Lyon had also been left out of the day-night Test in Brisbane.

Queensland legspinner Mitchell Swepson, with four Tests to his name, made passionate comments about the lack of opportunities to bowl on deteriorating pitches in Shield cricket.

Murphy understands that more than most. He is picked in every game for Victoria but has a very specific role to play and often finds himself starved of opportunities to bowl given Victoria's seamers have thrived on mostly seam-friendly pitches at home and away.

Twice before Christmas Murphy bowled exceptional spells to break open New South Wales' top order at Junction Oval and the SCG only to be pulled from the attack and not used again as the seamers ran riot through the rest of the line-up.

"I think that's just part of the way Shield cricket is being played at the moment," Murphy said. "But also, I've always been told, and worked on the notion, that if you can develop your skills to be effective in the most difficult conditions, then when you do get conditions in your favour, you're going to be set up to be able to make use of that anyway.

"I think in Shield cricket, although you don't bowl those huge spells, and you probably don't get wickets around the country that deteriorate massively, I think you can still be effective and play your role on the wickets we're getting."

One of Murphy's strengths is his thirst to continually evolve as a spinner and improve in conditions that don't suit him. He has a Test seven-for in India and appears certain to return there to play a big part on the 2027 tour after touring there with Australia A last year.

His record on the east coast of Australia, particularly in Melbourne, was part of the reason he was preferred over centrally contracted left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann and Western Australia offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli when Lyon was injured in Adelaide. But there is one glaring hole in Murphy's candidacy to succeed Lyon long-term as Australia's lone spinner in home conditions if they return to that formation more regularly. His record in Perth, especially compared to both Lyon and Rocchiccioli, is an area he must improve on. He has figures of 3 for 328 in three matches there, conceding 4.2 runs per over.

Beyond the challenge of Queensland this week, he gets the chance to return to the WACA ground to face Western Australia again in the following round.

"That one is one that I sort of look at the start of each season, because it definitely has been a challenge," Murphy said. "I haven't been super effective over there. And it's one of those ones that definitely requires a fractionally different way of bowling. I always look forward to that challenge, and each time I've gone back, I've been marginally better.

"Obviously it bounces a lot more, and your length probably can be a fraction different. So I won't try and change too much. It's just being really conscious of the length control that you want to bowl in different conditions. And I think you get good at that going to different parts of the world, because everywhere you go do presents different challenges."