Australia have dropped Todd Murphy for the debutant Cooper Connolly for the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.
Australia won the first Test of the two-match series comprehensively, defeating Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs. For that game, they had picked three frontline spinners with Mitchell Starc being the only frontline seamer. All-rounder Beau Webster was the second seam-option in the XI.
As the second Test approached, reports of Connolly getting a Test debut replacing Webster in the XI surfaced. While the 21-year-old all-rounder did get a debut, it wasn't at the cost of Webster, but another young spinner - Murphy.
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Who is Cooper Connolly?
Connolly is a 21-year-old middle order batter who bowls left-arm spin. He made his ODI and T20I debuts during Australia's tour of the United Kingdom in September last year, playing two ODIs and two T20Is. He only got to bat once in the four games and made an unbeaten seven. With the ball, he was wicketless in nine overs across three outings.
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Connolly has come through the ranks of age-group cricket, having represented Western Australia in U12s, U15s, U17s, and U19s. He played the 2020 and the 2022 U19 World Cup for Australia, leading them in the latter. Connolly's first major break came in the Big Bash League 2022-23 final where he played a match-winning hand of 25 off 11 to take Perth Scorchers to victory.
Before his Test debut, Connolly had played only four first-class games. While he was impressive with the bat, scoring 309 runs at 61.80, he is yet to take a first-class wicket after bowling in five innings (before his Test debut).
Why Connolly over Murphy?
Murphy didn't have a great game last week, recording figures of 0-28 and 1-57 across the two innings. He bowled the least number of overs among the three main spinners, and also went at five runs per over. It was his first Test match since the Oval Test in the 2023 Ashes.
Connolly, being a left-arm spinner, provided Australia a second option of taking the ball away from the right-hander. While the sample size of his record is too small to make any judgements, the management clearly rates him highly given how he was handed white-ball debuts last year.
The fact that the World Test Championship slots are now confirmed and this match is technically a dead rubber in that regard, it was also an opportunity for Australia to experiment a bit with their bench strength and provide them some top-level exposure in foreign conditions, although they did send back Sam Konstas citing lack of experience in these conditions, a move that was criticised by some.
With spin expected to play a huge part starting early in the Test, and Australia having two quicks in the form of Starc and Webster, Australia perhaps understood that the third spinner, whoever it was, would be underbowled compared to the two main ones - in this case, Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann - and found this the perfect opportunity to hand a Test cap to Connolly.
At the time of writing, Sri Lanka, having won the toss and elected to bat first, are 69-1 after 23 overs. All five bowlers except Connolly have had a bowl.
