The young off-spinner has enjoyed wood over the Indian great, beating him on both edges of the willow over the past three dismissals in the Test series.
Todd Murphy said he has relished his “awesome” battle with Virat Kohli, one off which he has enjoyed the better of for what have been his first three Tests in a career that promises a lot.
The young Australian off-spinner has been terrific with his usage of side-cutters on tricky, roughed-up surfaces, accentuating the natural variations off the deck while varying his angles to stand one-up in his first assignment against one of the modern-day greats.
Australia may have conceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy despite their win in Indore but Murphy has been one of their big positives. Identified from his U-19 days as a bit of a prodigy, the 22-year-old Victorian offie had played only seven first-class games before his much impressive debut in Nagpur.
Murphy bagged a seven-fer in his only innings of the Test series opener and even though his returns have dipped over the last two matches, the off-spinner has a series tally of 11 wickets at 21.81.
His economy rate of 2.61 reflects brightly on the youngster’s control and precision, something he put to great use in piling on the pressure through a wicketless 14-over burst in Indore, which helped Australia tighten the screws on the Indians.
For all his incisiveness and accuracy, however, the highlight of Murphy’s dream Indian sojourn has been retaining a wood over Virat Kohli, whom he has gotten out thrice in the series over five innings.
The first off these was a strangle down the leg side but the next two exhibited the bowler’s craftiness as Murphy managed to undo the right-hander on both edges of the bat.
“It’s been awesome,” Murphy told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the Ahmedabad Test. “When I look back to Nagpur when he walked out to bat, I was at the top of my mark thinking this is as good as it gets getting to bowl to a guy like that.”
“So to be able to have that for the first three Tests has been awesome, a really enjoyable battle and no different to bowling to a lot of their guys. When they stand there it is daunting at times.”
“It’s always nice when it looks like that. And I think the plans for [coming from] around the wicket is always to challenge both sides of the edges, for that to work out the way it did was nice and to get him out again was awesome,” he added.
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Murphy’s, and the rise of left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, wasn’t part of the expected script before the series but has given Australians the confidence to bank on their spin pack led by Nathan Lyon for Ahmedabad and feel more confident of their spin reserves for life after the great off-spinner.
