Australian left-arm spinner Ashton Agar feels it’s time for him to look beyond the safety net of playing for the country and explore new opportunities in the ever-evolving world of franchise cricket, quite like his country-mates who have made it big in leagues across the globe.

Agar, 30, is a member of the Australian squad for the T20 World Cup in the Americas and is in the mix to don the green and yellow jersey as the tournament progresses.

Agar’s more than decade-long career has seen him play five Tests and nearly 70 limited-over games, with the most memorable being an amazing 98 by a No. 11 player during the 2013 Ashes series.

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But the cricketer has never ventured out of the Australian cricketing setup even as the likes of David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Glen Maxewll, among others, have become household names in franchise cricket, especially the IPL.

“What I’ve learned is that you can’t cling on to safety in your skills and then your contracts,” Agar said in Unplayable Podcast on cricket.com.au.

“I’ve made that mistake before and your cricket skills fall away, if you’re clinging on to safety and security,” Agar, who played the T20 World Cup warm-up game against Namibia earlier this week, added.

Agar has played only three international games across formats over the past one-and-a-half-years, none of them a T20I.

He has declined deals with Western Australia or Australia for the first time since he moved from Melbourne to Perth in 2012, making it clear he is looking for greener pastures elsewhere.

“I think a lot of people are going to do what I’ve just done in the coming years. We’ll see it a lot more next year, more the year after — and that’s just going to be the way cricket works. Because there’s so much T20 cricket around the world, guys aren’t going to want to take contracts that lock them into certain things,” he added.

Agar, who was part of the Australian squads in the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups held in the UAE and Australia respectively but played just one match in each tournament, hopes to be a part of playing XI in the T20 World Cup and bowl alongside good friend Adam Zampa.

“It had been really positive (messaging from national selectors) the whole time that if we were going to take two spinners I was going to go,” said Agar.

“So I was preparing for most of the summer with this in the back of my mind. That’s nice because you can wrap your head around it mentally a little earlier and prepare,” added Agar.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)