Off-spinner Todd Murphy got his first Test cap for Australia against India during the series opener of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Wednesday at the VCA stadium in Nagpur.
The 22-year-old from Victoria has scalped 29 wickets at 25.20 from 10 first-class matches and is the least experienced candidate among the other three Aussie spinners in the squad— Nathan Lyon, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson.
Murphy was the first bowler to strike for Australia when he had KL Rahul caught and bowled on 20, a few overs before stumps on Day 1, after India had bundled the visitor on 177.
Earlier this month when Sportstar caught up with the offie, he said, “It came as a bit of a surprise (being included in the Australian squad), to be honest. I’ve been lucky enough that over my First-Class games, I’ve been able to perform well in a few of them, so it was nice that what I’ve been doing had got recognised, and the selectors see something in me.”
The last time Australia played two specialist off-spinners was in 1988, when Tim May and Peter Taylor played two Tests together in Pakistan.
