{"id":386412,"date":"2026-01-02T07:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386412\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T07:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:57:10","slug":"todd-murphy-in-line-for-ashes-return-as-scg-curator-allays-fears-over-pitchs-green-exterior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386412\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Murphy in line for Ashes return as SCG curator allays fears over pitch’s green exterior"},"content":{"rendered":"

Todd Murphy is firming to play his first home Test, after the SCG’s head curator declared the pitch’s green exterior will be near-irrelevant come day one.<\/p>\n

With administrators still on edge after last week’s two-day debacle in Melbourne, an extremely green SCG square raised eyebrows in Sydney on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But chief curator Adam Lewis insisted on Friday that it should not be a concern, and he was hopeful Sydney would extend into a fifth day.<\/p>\n

Khawaja did it all his own way and retires as an Australian great<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia had never seen a cricketer like Usman Khawaja and, thanks to his work on and off the field, he’ll be followed by plenty more.<\/p>\n

“You want to see a green tinge three days out,” Lewis said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not seeing any live grass three days out, then that’s when [it’s a worry] \u2026 I’m really comfortable with where we’re sitting.<\/p>\n

“We had a little bit of sun this morning. They’re saying a bit more sun tomorrow.<\/p>\n

“That will take the greenness out of the pitch. We’re really happy with the pitches at the moment. We’re looking good.”<\/p>\n

\"Curators<\/p>\n

The SCG centre wicket having a green tinge to it has sparked concerns over another short Test match. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)<\/p>\n

Lewis admitted he felt for MCG counterpart Matt Page last week after his pitch was deemed “unsatisfactory” by the ICC<\/a>, but said he felt no external pressure to ensure the fifth Test in Sydney went the distance.<\/p>\n

It’s estimated that Cricket Australia has lost in the vicinity of $15 million in profits this summer, with the opening Test in Perth also finishing inside two days.<\/p>\n

Even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joked at a function with teams on Thursday night that they had to ensure the game went to day three, in order to support the McGrath Foundation fundraiser.<\/p>\n

One of the hardest grounds in the world to bowl on between 2014 and 2023, last year’s SCG Test was over in just two-and-a-half days.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Last year’s Sydney Test finished inside three days as both Australia and India struggled on the playing surface. (Getty Images: SOPA Images\/Lightrocket\/Ayush Kumar)<\/p>\n

Lewis said that his ground staff would go with 6mm of grass this year compared to 7mm last season, while also reducing its density.<\/p>\n

That in itself generally acts to flatten out the wicket and produce less movement, while also inviting the chance of spin late in the match.<\/p>\n

“We just thought \u2026 we could thin our density out a little bit,” Lewis said.<\/p>\n

“That’s what we’ve done this year. We’ve practised that in the Shield matches, and we’ve received very good marks.”<\/p>\n

All of which should spell good news for Murphy.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Australia’s coaching staff had a prolonged conversation around the pitch on Friday morning, after leaving Murphy out and going with four quicks at the MCG.<\/p>\n

The spinner then spent most of Friday’s training session bowling to Australia’s top order, while Alex Carey also had an extended run keeping to him.<\/p>\n

With seven Tests to his name overseas, Murphy would be expected to come in for Jhye Richardson if he did play in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The other question for Australia will be whether Cameron Green remains in the side, after Beau Webster was spotted fielding in the gully during slips training on Friday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg said he too was confident the SCG Test would last the distance.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had more phone calls and conversations about wickets and millimetres of grass than I thought I’d ever have,” Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

“But I’m hopeful and confident we will have a long and productive Test match here.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd Murphy is firming to play his first home Test, after the SCG’s head curator declared the pitch’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,128883,207366,740,37779,44,43290,65207,206990,1211,33383,89809],"class_list":["post-386412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-vs-england","tag-chief-curator-adam-lewis","tag-cricket","tag-fifth-test","tag-news","tag-scg","tag-sydney-cricket-ground","tag-sydney-test","tag-test-cricket","tag-the-ashes","tag-todd-murphy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386412","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=386412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}