Ashes 2023: They’re Going To Attack, Come Extra Hard At Me, Says Australia’s Todd Murphy

The Ashes: Young Australia spinner Todd Murphy said he is anticipating to be attacked very hard by the England batters ahead of his Ashes debut at Headingley.

Murphy is all but confirmed to replace injured Nathan Lyon in the playing eleven for third Ashes Test starting from Thursday.

When Murphy will walk into the playing eleven at Headingley, he will be becoming the first spinner Australia has played in England that hasn’t been Lyon since 2013. Murphy, also an off-spinner like Lyon, gets his chance after the veteran spinner suffered a significant right calf strain while fielding in second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

“Definitely under no illusions that they’re going to attack me and come extra hard at me and put some pressure back on me. (I’m) just getting my head around that it might not look like bowling 40 overs and going at twos an over, it changes from that. Just trying to keep creating chances and take wickets and hopefully play a role,” said Murphy to SEN Radio.

Murphy made his Test debut in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India at Nagpur earlier this year and impressed while playing all four games, taking 14 wickets at an average of 25.21, with best figures of 7/124. He added that experience of playing Tests in India will come in handy for him while marking his first Ashes appearance.

“It’s really nice to be able to look back on and have that experience there (India), it’s not totally new and daunting coming out to play Test cricket over here. I think I’ll be able to look back and take some stuff from that, just sort of how to level emotions out and not get too caught up in it, five days is a long time to be up so just trying to manage that.”

Murphy further admitted that he wasn’t expecting to make an appearance during the ongoing Ashes series till Lyon’s injury at Lord’s changed the equation. “It’s probably changed a little bit from coming over here, what I was expecting, I obviously knew I was here as backup for Nathan if something was to go wrong but probably never thought, with how durable he’s been, that that would happen.”

“Now the prospect of playing some Ashes cricket is real, depending on selection, the last few days has probably just been getting my head around the opportunity that’s coming up and just making sure I’m really confident going out there.”

“When it (Lyon’s injury) happened, you could sort of tell the severity of it straight away by how he pulled up and your mind sort of goes straight away to what that can mean for you, obviously as disappointing as it was for Nath.”

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“From there you’re sort of trying to wrap your head around going forward and the opportunity that might arise, coming into the biggest series that’s been for a while. We’re obviously in a really good position but hope that I can help push forward,” he concluded.