Stuart MacGill believes if he is left out of the first Test against Sri Lanka next week his 40-Test career will be over.

"If they're not going to pick me at the Gabba, then they're not going to pick me," MacGill said.

MacGill agrees with Shane Warne - whose place he is hoping to take when the team is announced on Thursday - that Brisbane provides the best conditions for a wrist-spin bowler, and is the logical place for him to play.

"The Gabba is very good to bowl spin on. It bounces, it turns, it's fast ... you get results there," MacGill said.

"If you beat someone, they're beaten. There's no way out."

Although MacGill enjoys playing there, his strike rate in Brisbane is slightly below his career average.

In three Tests at the ground against England, West Indies and India, he has 11 wickets at 26, compared with his career average of five wickets per Test at an average of 27.

Warne took 68 wickets in 11 Tests at the Gabba, at an average of just over 20.

MacGill has not played for Australia since taking 16 wickets in a two-Test series in Bangladesh in April 2006.

He expected to be given a last opportunity to bowl in tandem with Warne during last summer's Ashes series, but missed out on taking part in the 5-0 rout.

MacGill, who has 198 Test wickets, has no doubts he is good enough to take plenty more.

"I know for a fact that when I'm bowling well I'm good enough to play for anyone," he said.

"I know that I'm improving. I'm simplifying as a bowler and that's what comes with age.

"That's why spin bowlers get better with age, because they realise that most of what people say to them doesn't matter.

"Batsmen have to rely on their eye. I have to rely on my brain, and fortunately that's not degenerating very quickly at the moment."

MacGill is resigned to his fate should he not get the nod on Thursday.

"I'll be disappointed because it'll probably be a good indicator that I'm not going to play again," he said.

"But I'm very, very comfortable with everything that I've achieved to this point, so I think it would be a bit wrong for me to be too upset about missing out.

"I've got a lot of things that I want to achieve for NSW and that's keeping me in the game at the moment," he said.

In some ways, he gets a bigger kick out of playing for his state than his country.

"I'll never forget the look on some guys' faces when they've won the Pura Cup.

"It sort of gets a bit boring for the Aussie team. We win every week."

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