Australia pacer Mitchell Starc has said that he opted out of the IPL auction at the last minute as he did not want to spend another 22 weeks in a bio-bubble.

“I was a click of the button away from entering the auction but personally didn’t want to spend 22 more weeks in a bubble,” Starc, who won the Allan Border medal, Australia top honour at Cricket Australia (CA) Awards, said on Saturday.

“They’ll be a time where I’d love to go back to the IPL but in terms of wanting to play as much as I can for Australia that’s a decision I’ve done for a while,” he was quoted as saying by espn.in.

The former Royal Challengers Bangalore player has only featured in two IPL seasons, bagging 37 wickets in 27 matches. In 2018, he was handed a Rs 9.4 crore contract by Kolkata Knight Riders but he had to pull out due to an injury suffered on the South Africa tour a few weeks before the start of the IPL season.

The 32-year-old Starc had said on Saturday that not long before he was on the verge of quitting the sport.

Starc was not taking the number of wickets expected of a pacer of his calibre. He was also leaking plenty of runs on the field and, off it, he was losing his father to cancer.