Ashes: Captain Pat Cummins Out And Spin Bowler Murphy In For 4th Test Against England

Melbourne: Todd Murphy will replace the injured Nathan Lyon as Australia’s spin bowler and captain Pat Cummins as expected will be rested for the fourth Ashes test against England beginning Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Murphy is set to play his first test in Australia in the Boxing Day match, edging out Matt Kuhnemann and Corey Rocchiccioli for a spot in the 15-man squad named Tuesday.

With the Ashes retained following Australia's third straight win in the series at Adelaide, Cummins will sit out the match following a serious back injury in June. He said after Australia's 82-run win over England in Adelaide that he would be unlikely to play at the MCG.

Steve Smith is expected to be fit after a vertigo episode forced him to miss the third test and he would again captain Australia in Cummins’ absence.

Fast bowler Jhye Richardson is in contention to play his first test in more than four years after being recalled to the squad following a series of injuries.

Lyon tweaked his hamstring while diving to save a boundary on the final day of the third test.

The 38-year-old Lyon has enjoyed an injury-free run through most of his test career, with the other setback being a torn calf in the 2023 Ashes. Murphy played two tests during that 2023 Ashes series after Lyon was injured, taking six wickets in Australia’s loss at The Oval in south London.

Australia coach Andrew McDonald said Tuesday that Lyon underwent surgery on his torn hamstring and could be out of action for many months.

“He’s pretty shattered,” McDonald said of Lyon. “He’s a huge part of what we do. He’s facing a long recovery time frame, so I’ll leave that up to the medical team, but all I know is it’ll be pretty long-ish (recovery).”

McDonald also said Cummings was no certainty for Australia's T20 World Cup campaign. Australia's first match is on Feb. 11 against Ireland at Colombo, Sri Lanka. Although Cummins captains the test and ODI teams, allrounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format.

"I’m assuming, he’ll (Cummins) have a check-in scan at some point and gather more information around where his back is at,” McDonald said. “Looking forward to the World Cup, whether he will be there or not, I can’t really say. It’s quite gray at the moment. We’re hopeful.”

The fifth and final Ashes test is scheduled to begin Jan. 3 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster.