'Not playing BBL has helped Test preparation' - Warner

David Warner last played a Big Bash League game in December 2013, and has not featured in the tournament's last two seasons. Unlike a number of his Australia team-mates, Warner opted not to play any BBL matches between the first and second Tests against West Indies.

Warner has said he would love to play the tournament, but has chosen not to in order to prepare for the rigours of Test cricket. Playing a Big Bash League before a Test match, he said, could leave him in danger of crossing the line between his normal aggressive approach and "Twenty20 mode".

"I haven't played Big Bash the last two years, it's been great for me to actually not play," Warner said, ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. "For me it's about rest and getting my body right.

"If we look back to the [2013-14] Ashes series, I played a Big Bash game, came out, and [in the] second over tried to hit one out of the park, which, yeah, sometimes [that's what] I generally try and do, but in that mind-frame that I was in, I was in Twenty20 mode, and I felt that that really hindered my preparation, and I didn't want to have that again, and that's the reason why I'm not playing Big Bash."

Warner, however, said he was not advocating that all his team-mates follow his lead.

"I'm not here to sit and tell everyone that that's what they should do," he said. "Everyone has their own way of preparing for games and they like to play the Big Bash. I would love to play the Big Bash but for me, as I said, it's about getting my preparation right to deliver out here on Boxing Day."