Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh said his stint with the Pune Rising Supergiants in the Indian Premier League will offer him vital experience as he looks ahead to tours of Sri Lanka and India. Marsh opted out of the lucrative T20 tournament in 2014 and 2015 to concentrate on his international career, but made himself available ahead of the recent IPL auction and was duly snapped up for '4.80 crore by the new franchise, Rising Pune Super-giants.
Now, with an eye on Austr-alia’s Test match schedule over the coming 12 months, the all-rounder sees the chance to hone his craft on the subcontinent as too valuable to pass up.
“With the Test tours we’ve got coming up, Sri Lanka later this year and India next year, it’s probably not such a bad thing to see a few of the wickets (in the IPL),” Marsh was quoted as saying in AAP by cricket.com.au.
“Certainly I will look at that (playing county cricket in the future instead of the IPL). “It’s a good opportunity to go over this year but beyond that we’ll see what happens.” Though he scored his maiden one-day international century at Sydney last month, continuing his century form in by a match-winning knock against New Zealand there after and excellent form with bowling in ODI and Test, Marsh is yet to seal his place in all three formats.
Marsh had recurring problems with both of his hamstrings in the early stage of his international career, but is now coming off a year of injury-free cricket.
“That did (help Marsh decide to nominate for the IPL auction),” he said. “We’ve still got seven weeks of cricket to go until the IPL starts so you never know (in terms of injury) – touch wood.
Marsh said he is taking the same approach he did on the date of the auction, when he scored an unbeaten 69 to deliver Australia an ODI win in Wellington moments after being told he’d been sold for '4.80 cr.
“I blocked it out then and that’s pretty much what I’ll keep doing,” he said. “It’s exciting to be joining Pune but I won’t be thinking about it until I’m actually there,” he added.
