Australia's Adam Zampa appeals after bowling during the first Twenty20 cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the MCG in Melbourne on February 17, 2017. / AFP / Mal Fairclough / --IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE-- (Photo credit should read MAL FAIRCLOUGH/AFP/Getty Images)

Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa has described his dropping from the T20 international match against Sri Lanka on Sunday as a 'kick in the guts'.

Zampa was a surprising withdrawal from the match in Geelong, he was set to retain his spot in the side before the wet-conditions changed the minds of selectors. Australia instead went into the match with five pace bowlers and two part-time spinners.

The 24-year-old was one of Australia's better bowlers in the first match at the MCG, where he finished with figures of 2-26.

Zampa said it was hard to look on from the sidelines and watch the team lose the series.

"It was a little bit of a kick in the guts the other night," he told Sportsday SA.

"I was told I was playing and then I turned up and they said that with the conditions (they were) thinking about going the other way.

"I would like to think that in the Twenty20 format in particular that I'm a regular, and just the other night they thought the conditions weren't going to suit. And they would have thought the game could have been shortened as well (due to rain), which doesn't help a spinner.

"But my stats over the past 18 months show that I'm probably almost the best spinner in the world in Twenty20 cricket.

"I think for any spinner in the world who had more than 40 wickets last year in Twenty20 cricket, I had the best strike rate.

"There's not much I can keep doing other than performing and putting my hand up to win games for whatever team I'm playing for."

The statistics back up Zampa's claims to be one of the world's best T20 spinners. He was the sixth highest wicket-taker in T20 in 2016, the second-highest spinner. He finished the year with 46 wickets at an average of 16.89 and an economy rate of 6.80.

His average was the second-best among spinners last year and his strike rate of 14.8 was the second best of any bowler to take more than 30 wickets, behind Dhawal Kulkarni with 14.7.