David Warner dubs Cricket Australia's international scheduling as 'very poor'

Australian opener David Warner has criticised the scheduling decision of different international formats made by Cricket Australia which is set to see him miss his side's Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka next month.

Labelling the crammed fixture as "very, very poor," Warner believes the absence of key players in the T20 squad could hurt Australia's chances of winning a first World Twenty20 trophy next year.

"Scheduling is obviously Cricket Australia's area. They play the big role in putting that on. For me, it's about going out there and playing the game and not worrying too much about that. In saying that, it is very, very poor scheduling. To have your Test team going away to play a Test match... it doesn't make any sense to us," ESPNcricinfo quoted Warner, as saying.

"I don't like it. Those of us who are part of the T20 team have a bigger goal and bigger picture, and that is to win a World Cup. You want to be putting your best team on the park all the time. At the end of the day, you've got Big Bash and IPL," Warner said.

The close scheduling means several members of Australia's first-choice T20 side - including Warner, captain Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Starc- will be unable to get a good hit out in the game's shortest format ahead of the 2018 T20 World Cup.

"If me, Smithy, Starcy, Ussy, Shaun Marsh -- all these guys that are in the Australian T20 team from the previous World Cup -- if we are not playing any T20 cricket in Australia where the next World Cup is meant to be, it becomes quite a tough thing for selectors to work around," he added.

Australia are scheduled to play three T20 international matches against Sri Lanka at the MCG (February 17), Geelong (February 19) and Adelaide Oval (February 22), and the first Test of the Qantas Tour of India in Pune the following day.

The Steve Smith-led side are yet to win a World T20 title, having made it to the finals only once when they were runners-up to England in 2010.

--ANI