Todd Murphy registered a five-wicket haul on his Test debut for Australia in the 1st game against India on Friday. Murphy became the 35th Australian to achieve the feat by taking wickets of key batters. the 22-year-old said he will not forget the moment for the rest of his life.
Murphy has so far picked up 5 for 82 in 36 overs in India's first innings, with the wickets of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series.
"It's been a pretty special couple of days and to top it off with a five-wicket haul on debut is more than I ever hope for and it is going to be something that I'll look back on for the rest of my life and be proud of," Murphy said at the end of the second day's play.
Murphy praised India batters and their strategy against spin.
"I haven't bowled to a lot of people from around the world but I think the Indian guys use their hands really well. They get their hands out in front of their pads and they have got a lot of scoring options too.
"So always a really difficult challenge there. And it was quite tough," he said.
Murphy started out as a medium pacer but later found off-breaks to be his calling card.
"I think in all honesty my medium pace wasn't really any good anyway, so it sort of just came a time where I was tinkering in the nets with off-spin bowling and yeah, got some really good feedback that what was coming out of my hand was alright.
"So, just went from there and kept working at it and it's been the best thing I've ever done. So thankful I have," he said.
According to Murphy, his career changed when he toured Sri Lanka with Australia A side in 2022.
"But one of the biggest things for me was getting to go to Sri Lanka and being on that A tour and having a little bit of success over that probably gave me the confidence I needed going back to Australia that I could mix it with first class cricketers."
"I took a lot of confidence out of that and reflected and went back, trusted myself a bit more and thought 'what I've got can be good enough' and believe in that," Murphy said.
