Murphy 'under no illusions' about the battle to be Lyon's understudy

Australian offspinner Todd Murphy is not someone who suffers from delusions of grandeur.

The 24-year-old Victorian made a brilliant start to his international career when he took seven wickets on Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2023. Across four matches in his debut series, he picked up 14 wickets at an average of 25.21, and after R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Nathan Lyon, he was the fourth-most-successful bowler of the series. However, in the following two years, Murphy has played only three more Test matches and has lost his Cricket Australia contract.

Murphy, who is currently on tour with Australia A in India, understands that as long as Lyon is around, he will get very few opportunities with the national side.

"I think I'm under no illusions of that," Murphy told ESPNcricinfo prior to the second four-day match in Lucknow. "When you get a guy like Nathan Lyon, who is number one there, then you know that your opportunities are going to be few and far between. So, I think sort of over the last couple of years, it's just finding enjoyment out of training and trying to get better personally. So, if I do get an opportunity, then hopefully I'm well equipped to take it."

Following his debut series in India, Murphy was taken on the 2023 Ashes tour as Australia's No. 2 spinner and got the opportunity to play two Tests in Lyon's absence. He took seven wickets, including a four-wicket haul in the second innings of The Oval Test. But, after that, he had to wait almost one-and-a-half years for the next chance.

At the beginning of this year, when Australia toured Sri Lanka, Murphy was once again picked as part of a three-man spin attack with Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann, just as he was in three of the four Tests in India in 2023. But, on a spin-friendly Galle pitch, he managed to take only one wicket across both innings and lost his place for the second Test as Australia experimented with playing spin-bowling allrounder Cooper Connolly to lengthen the batting.

Kuhnemann, who had also debuted in India in 2023, took 16 wickets against Sri Lanka with Australia's selectors preferring to pair the left-arm orthodox with Lyon rather than picking two offspinners in the same XI. Kuhnemann was also given a CA contract and selected in the Australia squad alongside Lyon for this year's West Indies tour.

Murphy knows that even when the 37-year-old Lyon retires, it will not be easy for him to secure a permanent spot in the XI because Australia's spin depth is as strong as it's been for some time. Western Australia offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli is partnering Murphy on the current Australia A tour and has outperformed Murphy and Kuhnemann in Sheffield Shield cricket over the past two years. However, Murphy considers it healthy competition.

"There are some really good guys underneath Gaz [Lyon]," Murphy said. "Kuhney [Kuhnemann] did super well in Sri Lanka. Rocks [Rocchiccioli] is bowling outstandingly well in Shield cricket. So, there is a good crew of us coming through now. We all are just trying to continually get better underneath Gaz. And when the time comes, when someone gets an opportunity, they'll be able to take that."

Rocchiccioli has not yet made his international debut, but he took 38 wickets in nine matches of the 2024-25 Sheffield Shield and was the best spinner of the season. Across the last four Shield seasons, he has been the highest wicket-taking spinner with 83 wickets, 56 of which have come on the bouncy WACA pitch.

On the flat pitch in Lucknow in the first unofficial Test of the tour, Rocchiccioli took three wickets in the only innings while Murphy went wicketless from 35 frugal overs.

Rocchiccioli also performed brilliantly in this year's County season while playing for Warwickshire. He took 16 wickets across seven innings in four matches, including two five-wicket hauls. On the other hand, Murphy, playing for Gloucestershire, took only 11 wickets across six innings in four matches at a costly average of 56.27, without a five-wicket haul. But Murphy took a lot of positives from the four-game stint.

"It was a really good opportunity for me to play four games in the UK with a Kookaburra ball," Murphy said. "There were a lot of runs scored there as well. I think it was a lot of the same stuff, just continuing to learn and being open to learning against different players in different conditions. There's some really good takeaways from there and I realised the importance of being super consistent as an offspinner and challenging the batters for long periods of time."

Murphy has now completely recovered from a shoulder injury, which caused him frustration and affected his performance at times over the past two years. But he is not one to make excuses and is delighted with the opportunity to return to India to develop his bowling further.

"The pitch in the first match was very different from the last tour," Murphy said. "Instead of spinning, it was more of a flat pitch. This too is a kind of challenge, how do we bowl on flat wickets? The whole purpose of the trip is to come over here and try to keep adapting to these conditions.

"So it was another challenge to try and adapt to a flatter wicket, find ways to put the batters under pressure and that's just bouncing in an out of different plans and working with the captain. Sometimes the best way to do that is just shut the scoreboard down and get a different shot out of the batter."

Following the second unofficial Test, Murphy will return for the start of a new Shield season with Victoria. Ambitions of reclaiming his place as Australia's first-choice understudy behind Lyon will fade behind his aim to help Victoria claim a Shield title that has narrowly eluded them over the past three seasons.

"I think when you start a new Shield season, the first hope is to try and push as hard as you can to try and win the Shield," Murphy said. "My role amongst the Victorian team is just to try and contribute to win. So that's sort of what I'm looking to do. We've got a really good group of fast bowlers at Victoria, so I will try and play my role in and around that. Hopefully, I will be able to put up some good performance personally to keep myself going. But yeah, just try and play the best team role I can and I know performances will come from that."