Todd Murphy signs with Durham to prepare for Ashes 2023

Australian off-spinner Todd Murphy will be joining County Championship side Durham during June and July ahead of the Ashes in England. Murphy will be featuring in the initial seven-round block of Championship fixtures this season. The deal was reportedly confirmed before the youngster’s sensational performance in the first Test against India in Nagpur, where he picked up 7/124.

The 22-year-old has played eight first class matches and has 36 wickets at an average of 23.75. The county stint will provide him with the much-needed experience in the English conditions and will help him get to know about the Dukes ball ahead of the ‘all-important’ Ashes.

According to The Guardian, Cricket Australia have been heavily involved in the deal and will be covering the travel costs for Murphy's stint in the North East. He will be working alongside former Australian cricketers Ryan Campbell (head coach) and Marcus North (director of cricket).

According to reports, the Victoria-born spinner will feature at the start of the season and will then be released if named in the Ashes squad. Murphy is the fourth Australian cricketer to sign up for the County Championship ahead of the Ashes. Notably, Steve Smith will play three matches for Sussex, Marnus Labuschagne will represent Glamorgan and Michael Neser will be seen playing for the Welsh side.  

English fans angry over Steve Smith getting to play County Cricket

There were reports doing rounds that fans had reacted furiously over Smith getting some crucial practice in English conditions ahead of the Ashes. However, England skipper Ben Stokes has rubbished the claims that the Aussies will gain an advantage by playing in the county championship.

Smith has played 16 Tests in England, scoring 1727 runs at a brilliant average of 59.55 with six hundreds and seven fifties to his name. It will be interesting to see how the Aussie batter performs in England after playing in the county championship.