Full-back Murphy makes his 297th starting appearance for the club and is named as captain for a game which sees third-placed Tigers face a Saracens team just one place and one point ahead of them.
Croft returns to the Tigers back row, while Ed Slater takes over from Louis Deacon at lock. Matt Smith, Dan Bowden and George Ford return to the backline this weekend.
“We weren’t far away at Quins last week, we defended very well and scored two good tries, and this is another important game against another good side who are just above us in the table,” said Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
Tigers have eight players on Six Nations duty, while Louis Deacon, Anthony Allen, Niall Morris, Boris Stankovich and Steve Mafi are unavailable due to injury.
Tickets for Saturday’s game are available now. The Tigers ticket office is open until 5pm on Friday and from 9am on Saturday. Call in at Welford Road or phone the ticket office on 0844 856 1880. Or click here to book online any time and collect your tickets on the way to the game.
Live coverage of the Six Nations matches will be shown in Final Whistle at Welford Road, with Italy against Wales at 2.30pm and England versus France at 5.00pm ahead of the Tigers versus Saracens kick-off.
Leicester Tigers (v Saracens, Welford Road, Saturday 8pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Matt Smith
12 Dan Bowden
11 Adam Thompstone
10 George Ford
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Logovi’i Mulipola
4 Ed Slater
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Tom Croft
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Kieran Brookes
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Brett Deacon
20 Richard Thorpe
21 Micky Young
22 Matt Cornwell
23 Mathew Tait
Saracens
15 Chris Wyles
14 James Short
13 Joel Tomkins
12 Adam Powell
11 David Strettle
10 Charlie Hodgson
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Rhys Gill
2 Schalk Brits
3 Matt Stevens
4 Steve Borthwick (c)
5 Alistair Hargreaves
6 Jackson Wray
7 Will Fraser
8 Ernst Joubert
Replacements
16 John Smit
17 Nick Auterac
18 Petrus du Plessis
19 George Kruis
20 Justin Melck
21 Neil de Kock
22 Nils Mordt
23 Duncan Taylor
