Murphy became the 4th Australian bowler to pick a fifer on debut and also the youngest Australian to take a 5-wicket haul. He was the pick of the bowlers on Day 2.
Talking about this performance, Murphy said, “Coming into the game, I was sort of hoping to get one wicket at least. To finish the day with five on debut is a special day. It’s been a pretty surreal week, it’s all happened quite fast. From the moment I found out I’ll be playing until now, just tried to embrace it and enjoy everything that comes with it. I try to make sure that my body language is quite good and I believe in myself. The message I got from a lot of guys was don’t change anything that I’ve been doing in state cricket. I looked at Jadeja, Ashwin and Axar, they were so consistent with what they were doing. They didn’t go searching for too much. That was something I was looking at – putting enough balls in that area to ask questions for long enough. It’s awesome to have them (family) here, I found out two nights before, it was mad rush for them. They had a 2 AM leave from home to get to the airport. they’re really grateful that they had the opportunity to get in here.”
Speaking after the hard day’s toil at Nagpur, Murphy said that Virat Kohli’s wicket was a dream come true moment for him.
“[The wicket which he enjoyed the most] The one that got Virat out even though it wasn’t the best ball of the day. That’s dream come true. A guy I have watched for so long, he’s a hero for all these guys. The roar when he came out to bat sort of took me back a little bit and it was quite special to share the field with him. I tried to embrace it and play with a smile on my face. When Virat walked out to bat and the crowd went off … that’s amazing sort of stuff … I think that’s going to live with me forever. It’s awesome to get the opportunity to mix it with guys like that. I heard the little inside edge, hoping that Carey would hang on to it, thankfully he did, he’s kept beautifully behind the stumps, he’s helped me with a couple of reviews too. He had a big part to play in those wickets today,” said the debutant.
“The game was right in the balance until that last partnership. Credit to those two guys, they’ve been able to absorb everything we threw at them and build that partnership. The ball is still doing enough when you put it there but there’s no actually demons there. The guys that applied themselves and just looked to bat long periods of time were able to reap the rewards. We need to come with a really good attitude in the morning and try and press hard for those three wickets. The sooner we get them, the sooner we can get batting and try and eat into that deficit and post a lead. If we can get 150-200 runs in front, then you’ve got something to bowl at,” Murphy added.
Australia toiled hard on Day 2 but was pegged back due to poor catching and three big innings from Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel.