Australia has opted against picking a specialist spinner for the fourth time in six Tests, with tweaker Todd Murphy omitted for this week’s New Year’s Ashes contest against England at the SCG.
The hosts made one change to its starting XI from last week’s frantic Boxing Day Test at the MCG, with all-rounder Beau Webster replacing seamer Jhye Richardson. It marks the first time since 1888 that Australia hasn’t picked a strike spinner for a Test match at the SCG.
Watch The Ashes 2025/26 LIVE and ad-break free during play with FOX CRICKET on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
Speaking at the toss, Australian interim captain Steve Smith confirmed it was a hard decision to leave out Murphy.
“Hate doing it,” he said.
“But we keep producing wickets that we don’t think are going to spin and seam’s going to play a big part.
“You kind of get pushed into a corner.”
Murphy replaced Nathan Lyon in the Australian squad after the veteran spinner sustained a hamstring injury during the Adelaide Test. The spectacled Victorian, who also missed selection for the MCG clash, is yet to play a Test match on home soil.
“If they don’t (pick a spinner), I’m taking the selection panel to the Hague,” former Australian tweaker Kerry O’Keeffe said on Fox Sports News’ Ashes Daily on Sunday.
“I’m going to the highest court in the world.
“I’ve seen both Sheffield Shield games on this strip this year. It spun, it’s been bouncing for the spinners.
“Murphy is a quality bowler, he deserves to play at the SCG. I will be bereft if Australia go in without a specialist spinner into this match.”
5TH TEST LIVE: Unthinkable SCG reality as shock XI revealed in Aussie gamble
TALKING PTS: ‘Bazball’ fail could spell doom for one man; Oz ‘threat’ put on notice
Speaking to reporters at the MCG last week, Australian coach Andrew McDonald declared that he would “love to pick Todd”, with former Test fast bowler Jason Gillespie therefore claiming the surprise selection snub was someone else’s call.
“Andrew McDonald said the other day basically that Todd Murphy would play,” Gillespie said on ABC Grandstand.
“Make no mistake, this is a Steve Smith decision.”
The SCG was a spinner’s paradise a generation ago, with Australia often picking two slow bowlers in the New South Wales capital – but that’s no longer the case.
Since 2018, the Sydney venue has become a tweaker’s graveyard, boasting the highest average for spinners among Australia’s regular Test venues. Spinners have averaged 49.18 in Tests at the SCG since the start of 2021, compared to 27.72 for the seamers.
“I’d love the old-school SCG,” Smith lamented while speaking to reporters on Saturday morning.
“Flat for two days. Footmarks starting to come in. Cracks opening. Reverse swing. Spin late in the game, tricky to bat. Slow, low wicket. Fielders in front of the wicket. That’s the ideal when you come here when you think about the SCG in the past.
“But I don’t think it’s been like that for as long as I’ve been playing unfortunately.
“It’s one of Nathan Lyon’s worst grounds in Australia.”
Test average for spin bowlers since 2018
34.23 – MCG
34.97 – Perth Stadium
38.18 – Adelaide Oval
41.10 – Gabba
45.24 – SCG
Huge crowds gather for Ashes tickets | 06:26
Seam bowlers dominated last summer’s New Year’s Test at the SCG, which wrapped up before tea on day three; Lyon only bowled six overs during the low-scoring match, with 33 of the 34 wickets taken by seam bowlers.
“They changed the grass last year and that wicket played so differently to anything else I’ve played before in 18 or 19 years before,” retiring Australian batter Usman Khawaja explained on Fox Cricket.
“It used to be a beautiful batting track day one and day two, slow-ish, a bit dead, you could lock in, but last year was different to anything I’d seen, it was fast and bouncy … I’ve never been that far back in the slips cordon.
“It’s not like the old SCG anymore, but that’s why we say we don’t know.”
When Lyon was sidelined for last month’s pink-ball contest at the Gabba, it was the first time Australia hadn’t picked a specialist spinner in a home Test since January 2012, a streak of 69 consecutive matches. Now they’ve done it three times in four Tests.
According to CricViz, spinners have only produced 14 per cent of the overs during this Test summer, the lowest proportion in an Ashes series since the 1905 campaign in England.
“RIP spin bowling,” former England captain Michael Vaughan declared on Fox Cricket.
Discussion about this post