Todd Murphy out to challenge Nathan Lyon for mantle of Australia’s No.1 Test spinner

Murphy, 22, has risen meteorically to establish himself as the nation’s clear No.2 red-ball tweaker, having taken 14 wickets in his debut Test series in India earlier this year, a tour for which he was picked on the back of just seven first-class matches.

Having leapfrogged the likes of Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Agar, Matt Kuhnemann, Jon Holland, Adam Zampa and Tanveer Sangha to establish himself as Lyon’s primary understudy, Murphy will this week fly to England where he and Lyon are the two specialist spinners in Australia’s squad for the World Test Championship final and first two Ashes Tests.

Murphy has emerged as Lyon’s clear heir apparent, however the “GOAT” is in no mood to hand over the spot in Australia’s XI he has held uninterrupted for almost a decade.

Lyon, 35, last week said he has no plans to retire as he closes in on 500 Test wickets.

“There’s no end in sight for me. I still feel like I can get better,” Lyon said.

With Australia not scheduled to play a Test in Asia for another two years, that could leave Murphy biding his time for a considerable period.

Murphy knows that Lyon, who finished with 22 wickets during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, has earned the right to remain Australia’s clear first-choice Test spinner, but that won’t deter him from pushing to dislodge Lyon over the next couple of years.

“For sure,” Murphy told CODE Sports when asked if he was seeking to challenge Lyon for the mantle of No.1 spinner.

“There’s always going to be that there that I’m going to try and compete as hard as I can and keep trying to develop my skills as best I can.

“And whatever comes from there, comes from there. At the moment, I know where I sit in that sense, and, Gaz (Lyon) has been so good for so long, and rightly deserves to be still the No.1 spinner in Australia by a long way.

“I’ve got no qualms with that. But yeah, I’m definitely going to be there and try to keep tapping into him and keep developing as much as I can. And if an opportunity arises, try and make sure that I’m best equipped to take it. But I’m under no illusions of where I sit in that order.”

In an ideal world, Murphy would have already been in England alongside fellow squad members Marcus Harris, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. The offie had committed to a pre-Ashes stint with county Durham, however a couple of niggles which arose in India put the kybosh on those plans. Murphy was ultimately replaced at Durham by Kuhnemann, whose stint was itself ended by a back injury.

“The intention was sort of always there. And the opportunity I was really excited by, to play some county cricket. The Indian tour, I had a lot higher workload than I think we all expected when I signed the deal, and had a few niggles that if I didn’t take time to get right now were going to linger,” Murphy said.

“Unfortunately, that meant sacrificing a few-game block with Durham at the start of the season, which would have been great, but I’m still hopeful that I can get there sort of back end of the year and try and play some cricket.

“I had a little left knee meniscus injury and then a right Achilles as well – that was probably the main thing that although they weren’t major they were just those ones that if you don’t get on top of it, and try and rectify, they just linger around and annoy you the whole time.”

Murphy bowled more than 137 overs in India, a considerable step-up for a young player who had such little first-class experience.

Lyon encouraged Murphy to manage his loads between Tests.

“(Lyon) made me feel more comfortable with in between games, watching how he went about it to realise you don’t need to be bowling as much as potentially you would back home, (to) trust that the work you’ve put in over the last block, that no matter what you do in between games, your going to your skill set (which) is going to be good enough to compete when it does come time.”

Murphy – whose father Jamie is a former club teammate of the late Shane Warne at St Kilda – has an appreciation for the significance of the Ashes, having watched the epic 2005 series at length as a child.

“Even though I was only quite young, ‘05 sort of stands out for me. We had that as a box set at home on DVD, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I watched that on school holidays or sick days. That what was started the Ashes for me, and the love for it,” Murphy said.

While Warne was a magnet for endorsements, Murphy does not quite have the same commercial appeal yet, albeit he is open to sponsors for his glasses, which he has worn since he was a toddler.

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“There’s a few working away in the background, but I don’t think anything as such has sort of jumped out at the moment. But if someone wants to jump on board, happy days,” Murphy said.

“I’ve worn them for as long as I can remember. It’s never worried me once at all. And I’ve never sort of felt the need to get rid of them and put contacts in or anything like that. I’ve quite enjoyed wearing the glasses. I think they’ll be with me for a while now.

“It just adds to who I am. And it’s me. So I’m happy to have it there and embrace it.”