{"id":378744,"date":"2025-12-29T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378744\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T18:42:10","slug":"aussie-spinner-likely-to-earn-recall-for-scg-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378744\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie spinner likely to earn recall for SCG Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Todd Murphy is likely to earn a recall for the Ashes finale in Sydney after Australia coach Andrew McDonald admitted he doesn’t like leaving a spinner out for red-ball Tests.<\/p>\n

Called into the Australian squad following Nathan Lyon’s long-term hamstring injury, Murphy was left out of the XI for the Boxing Day Test.<\/p>\n

It was the first time in 14 years Australia hadn’t picked a frontline spinner for a home red-ball Test.<\/p>\n

\"Jhye\"<\/p>\n

Back after injury at the MCG, Jhye Richardson is likely to make way for Todd Murphy at the SCG. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Australia chose not to play Lyon for their most recent day-night Tests in Kingston and Brisbane, winning both of those matches.<\/p>\n

Although they lost to England by four wickets in a frantic two days at the MCG, Australia’s decision not to pick Murphy was vindicated by the grassy, pace-friendly pitch.<\/p>\n

“It’s not something that we like doing,” McDonald said of not picking a spinner.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it’s something that will happen moving forward as well.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t pick a spinner in a red-ball Test match in Australia because of the surface that presented, and I suppose it was all validated with the way the Test match played out.”<\/p>\n

\"Murphy\"<\/p>\n

It’s been 11 months since Murphy’s last Test, against Sri Lanka in Galle. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

All of Murphy’s seven Tests have been in Asia and England, the last coming in Galle against Sri Lanka in January.<\/p>\n

Traditionally spin-friendly, the SCG pitch has offered more for pace bowlers during the last two years after rain-affected draws from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n

“I’d love to pick Todd. I’d love to see what he’s got to offer,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

“Seven Test matches into his career, he’s well placed on the back of the last two years as well.<\/p>\n

“We talked about Sammy (Konstas) before having a little dip in terms of the batting space, young spinners do have that as well.<\/p>\n

“(Murphy) had some some issues with his shoulder, and we think he’s back to his best.”<\/p>\n

Murphy will likely replace fit-again quick Jhye Richardson, who is coming off his first Test in four years.<\/p>\n

Given the short turnaround between Tests, Richardson’s injury history, and the surface in Sydney, the Western Australian paceman will almost certainly make way.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland have played all four Tests this summer but are fit and ready for the Ashes finale.<\/p>\n

Michael Neser was one of the few Australians to perform strongly in the Boxing Day Test, top-scoring in the first innings and bagging four wickets.<\/p>\n

\"Beau\"<\/p>\n

There’s plenty of interest in Beau Webster’s chances of a recall for the SCG Test. (AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Reserve allrounder Beau Webster played for the Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL on Monday night, but will return to the Australia squad ahead of the fifth Test.<\/p>\n

Webster, who was left out of the Ashes opener and hasn’t featured at all in this series, is under consideration to replace struggling allrounder Cameron Green.<\/p>\n

After seven Tests this year, Webster is averaging a respectable 34.63 with the bat and has taken eight wickets at 23.25.<\/p>\n

\"green\"<\/p>\n

Cameron Green is under more pressure than usual for his spot. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“It’s a nice problem to have when people are talking about someone out of the team that’s unlucky, it means that you’ve probably got a strong line-up,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

“They’re going to debate where Cameron’s at, and how he fits.<\/p>\n

“We know we’ve got a quality player (Webster) sitting there waiting.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a batting order that we’d like to think can function at a higher capacity (than it did at the MCG).”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd Murphy is likely to earn a recall for the Ashes finale in Sydney after Australia coach Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[91335,64,63,53166,60153,29547,44,204005,89809],"class_list":{"0":"post-378744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-andrew-mcdonald","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-boxing-day-test","12":"tag-jhye-richardson","13":"tag-nathan-lyon","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-spinner","16":"tag-todd-murphy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}