Australia faces tough questions around its second spinner for upcoming tour of India

Australia faces some massive calls for the upcoming tour of India as debate rages over who is the best second spinner option for the tour. See the probable squad.

Australia is seeing double for next month’s tour of India, with bespectacled Victorian Todd Murphy to join Nathan Lyon in the quest for world domination.

Murphy is set to be named on Wednesday alongside Lyon, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson in a spin squadron preparing to conquer cricket’s biggest challenge and lead Australia to glory in India.

In the eyes of selectors, Murphy is the second best spinner in Australia.

But the rookie sensation with just seven first-class matches to his name is an off-spinner like Lyon, and the question is can Murphy partner the GOAT in the best XI?

Sub-continental veteran Peter Handscomb and Sydney Test comeback kid Matthew Renshaw will provide conditions-suited reinforcement for Australia’s batting line-up for the four Test series starting on February 9, particularly if all-rounder Cameron Green is slow returning from his broken finger.

Mitchell Starc is expected to be named in a squad of up to 18 players announced on Wednesday as he continues to recover from tendon damage to the middle finger of his bowling hand – but will miss at least the first Test match in Nagpur and will be racing the clock to be back in time for the second Test in Delhi.

Todd Murphy is viewed as Australia’s second best Test spinner. Picture: Getty Images

Ashton Agar’s underwhelming Test return at the SCG has thrown the race to partner Lyon as Australia’s second spinner wide open – with the previously unlikely scenario of playing two off-spinners in the same attack now a realistic possibility with Murphy screaming into focus.

Murphy took himself to an optometrist at the start of the summer to try on contact lenses, but didn’t like the feel and is committed to joining the likes of Daniel Vettori and Jack Leach as glasses-wearing Test spinners.

Selectors must weigh up whether Murphy and Lyon can feature in the same attack, but the 22-year-old from Echuca told News Corp earlier this summer that master and apprentice are not the same bowler.

“His (Lyon’s) stock ball is so good and so repeatable and he backs that in a lot. Whereas I try and change my pace a bit more … and I chop and change things a bit more potentially,” Murphy said.

The conundrum over how to get the second best spinner into the best XI isn’t made any easier by the fact part-time wicket-sneak Travis Head is another off-spinner.

But former Test great Kerry O’Keeffe has been one leading voice this summer on Fox Cricket who sees merit in prioritising quality over trying to find a point of difference.

Agar is still in the box seat to be first-choice partner in crime for Lyon, but the watch is on after he went wicketless on day five at the SCG.

Australia hasn’t had too many glasses-wearing Test cricketers in recent decades, but Murphy is now well and truly in the frame.

Murphy’s Victorian coach Chris Rogers occasionally wore his spectacles in the field, while Dirk Wellham and former spinner Murray Bennett also wore glasses.

Ray Phillips, the deputy wicketkeeper on the 1985 tour was a glasses wearer, while Ashley Mallett and John Inverarity both started their Test careers in specs before switching to contacts.

That didn’t work for Murphy.

Nathan Lyon will lead Australia’s attack in India. Picture: AFP Images

“Wearing glasses is something I’ve always done. I definitely have looked into contact lenses and just recently went in there and tried them on again,” Murphy said.

“But for some reason they just don’t work with my eyes.

“I think I’m stuck with the glasses for the time being. That’s no issue to me. I’ve always played with them and got used to having them on. They’re a part of me I think, I don’t think they’re going anywhere.”

Murphy is in good company with his bowling coach and former New Zealand spin great Vettori a glasses wearer and dubbed ‘Wiz’ in reference to Harry Potter.