Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has decided not to feature in the upcoming season of Indian Premier League as he will be playing for English county side Surrey in order to improve his game in the longer format.

Despite the fact that Marsh was bought for a huge money of 4.8 crores in IPL auction 2017 by RPS, Marsh decided to opt out from the next season. As quoted in ESPNcricinfo, he said, “It was a fairly big decision from a money point of view but my ultimate goal is to play Test match cricket for Australia. That’s the lure of the IPL – the money and playing in India, but I made the decision based on my cricket.”

He further added, “When I made that decision, I didn’t really think I was going to be back there this quickly. But I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to play 14 red-ball games over there – if I can, and try and improve.”

Marsh recently smashed his maiden Test century during the ongoing Ashes series, said he wants to give himself a better chance to play for Australia when they play in England in the next few years. he said, “Looking forward we have got a lot of cricket coming up in England over the next few years and I want to give myself the best opportunity to be over there and get used to the conditions.”

He further elaborated, “While I know it was the flattest wicket in cricket history, to apply myself for that long and not really care about scoring is something I’ve gained a lot of confidence from. I think I’ve said it for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been a lot more relaxed with this preparation when I came back to the Test team. I knew the gameplan I’d have to go out there with and it was about sticking to that for as long as we needed to get the draw.”