Todd Raymond Murphy (born 15 November 2000) is an Australian
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
er. A right-arm
off spin
Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to r ...
bowler, Murphy made his first-class debut for Victoria in April 2021 and his Test debut for Australia in February 2023. He was a member of the Australian team that won the
2023 ICC World Test Championship final
The final of the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship, a Test cricket, Test cricket match, was played from 7 to 11 June 2023 at The Oval, London, between Australia national cricket team, Australia and India national cricket team, India. Aust ...
.
Early life
Murphy was born in
Echuca
Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative cen ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
, and raised just across the
Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
in
Moama
Moama ( or ) is a town in the Murray region of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray River Council local government area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger town of Echuca in the neighbouring state of Vic ...
,
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. His father, Jamie Murphy, was a left-handed middle-order batsman who played eight seasons for St Kilda in Victorian Premier Cricket, where he was a teammate of
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...
.
Murphy played for Moama Cricket Club as a junior, initially as a top-order batsman and medium-pace bowler. He transitioned to off spin in 2017 after being observed "stuffing around" in the nets by former Victorian leg-spinner,
Craig Howard. Murphy spent a season with Sandhurst Cricket Club in the Bendigo District Cricket Association before moving to St Kilda Cricket Club in 2018/19.
First-class and Test career
Murphy made his
List A
List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...
debut on 10 March 2021, for
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
in the
2020–21 Marsh One-Day Cup
The 2021 Marsh One-Day Cup was the 52nd season of the official List A domestic cricket competition being played in Australia. On 26 June 2020, Cricket Australia confirmed all the squads for the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. Western Austral ...
.
Prior to his List A debut, Murphy was named in Australia's squad for the
2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup
The 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 17 January to 9 February 2020. It was the thirteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be ...
.
Murphy made his
first-class debut on 3 April 2021, for Victoria in the
2020–21 Sheffield Shield season
The 2020–21 Sheffield Shield season was the 119th season of the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic first-class cricket competition. On 26 June 2020, Cricket Australia confirmed all the squads for the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. ...
, scoring 34 runs and taking one wicket.
He made his
Twenty20
Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...
debut on 26 December 2021, for the
Sydney Sixers
The Sydney Sixers is an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the Spee ...
in the
2021–22 Big Bash League season
The 2021–22 Big Bash League season or BBL, 11 was the eleventh season of the Big Bash League, the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was played from 5 December 2021 until 28 January 2022. Per ...
.
After just seven first-class matches, in 2023, Murphy was named as a member of the Australian Test squad for the
team's tour of India. He was one of four spinners selected alongside
Nathan Lyon
Nathan Michael Lyon (born 20 November 1987) is an Australian international cricketer. He made his Test debut in 2011 and plays domestic cricket for New South Wales. Lyon is an off-spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batsman. Considered ...
,
Ashton Agar
Ashton Charles Agar (born 14 October 1993) is an Australian cricketer who plays all forms of the game at international level. Agar plays domestically for Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers. A left-handed spin bowler and capable lower-orde ...
, and
Mitchell Swepson
Mitchell Joseph Swepson (born 4 October 1993) is an Australian cricketer. A leg-spin bowler, he made his international debut for the Australia cricket team in June 2018, and plays for Queensland and the Brisbane Heat in Australian domestic cric ...
. In February 2023, Murphy made his Test debut at Nagpur and took figures of 7/124 from 47 overs. He played all four Test matches on the tour, finishing with 14 wickets.
2023 Ashes
In April 2023, Murphy was selected for the squad for the
2023 Ashes
The 2023 Ashes series, branded as the Liverpool Victoria, LV= Insurance Men's Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons, was a series of Test cricket matches played between England cricket team, England and Australia national cricket team, Australia ...
as the second spinner beyond Nathan Lyon. Following Lyon's return home with a calf injury, Murphy made his
Ashes
Ashes may refer to:
* Ash, the solid remnants of fires.
Media and entertainment Art
* ''Ashes'' (Munch), an 1894 painting by Edvard Munch
Film
* ''The Ashes'' (film), a 1965 Polish film by director Andrzej Wajda
* ''Ashes'' (1922 film), ...
debut at
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...
,
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
where he took 1/49 from 9.3 overs. Following this Murphy was dropped for the 4th Test which was Australia's first test in 10 years without a spinner.
Recalled for the 5th Test, Murphy took 2/22 from 6 overs in the first innings and 4/110 from 22.5 overs in the second.He also scored vital runs; his 34 in the first innings was instrumental in giving Australia a slender first innings lead and he scored 18 in the second innings.
2025
In June 2025, Murphy signed a contract with
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1870, is one of 18 first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, hist ...
to play in four matches in that year's
County Championship
The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...
.
Playing style
Murphy is a right-arm off spin bowler of brisk pace, delivering most of his deliveries in excess of 90 km/h. He bowls with a high, jaunty action that has been compared to that of former England spinner,
Graeme Swann
Graeme Peter Swann (born 24 March 1979) is an English former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. Born in Northampton, he attended Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire. He was primarily a right-arm off-spinner, and also ...
. He is a left-handed batsman who bats in the tail, usually at number nine or ten.
Considered a top prospect in Australian cricket, a 2024
Fox Sports Australia
Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...
article on best young players ranked Murphy as the best young player in Australian cricket.
Murphy wears prescription glasses when batting, bowling and fielding, one of few Test cricketers to have done so.
Personal life
In 2022, Murphy was studying for a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science/Bachelor of Business (Sport Management) at
Deakin University
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...
.
Murphy supports the
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...
in the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Todd
2000 births
Living people
Australian cricketers
Victoria cricketers
Place of birth missing (living people)
Sydney Sixers cricketers
Australia Test cricketers
Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut
Sportspeople from Echuca
21st-century Australian sportsmen