Banned trio's return a process: Langer

Justin Langer says the process to reintegrate the country's three suspended batsmen is underway, after the national coach caught up with former leaders Steve Smith and David Warner this week in Sydney.

Langer has been in regular contact with fellow Western Australian Cameron Bancroft, whose ban expires next month, while he also met with Warner in Brisbane prior to the tour of the UAE and has been exchanging ongoing texts and calls with both New South Welshmen in recent months.

With the current cultural revolution that Cricket Australia is undergoing a direct result of the trio's cheating scandal in Cape Town back in March, the coach explained to reporters in Sydney on Wednesday that it wouldn't be right to simply slot them straight back into the fold. Instead, Langer stressed, it would be a gradual reintroduction.

"There's going to be a process for the boys to come back and it is really important we start working on that process from now," Langer said.

"We can't get to the point (of their bans expiring) and just say, 'Right, they're back'.

"It's not fair on them, it's not fair on the team, it's not fair on everyone."

Warner and Smith took on Australia quicks Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in the SCG nets on Sunday and Wednesday respectively this week, with Langer a close observer at the first of those hit-outs.

The 48-year-old, who has preached the need for "character over cover drives" among his players since taking on the top job, spoke glowingly of the trio in September, and suggested there was "no reason" why they wouldn't be welcomed back into the national set-up once their bans were served.

Monday's catch-up with Smith was the first in-person meeting between the pair in their respective positions, and amid rumours that the suspended skipper and his deputy were still to repair their relationship, Langer stressed that was not the reason for his separate catch-ups with the two players.

"It's nice to have Davey in, and Steve had a hit yesterday," he said. "I had breakfast with him on Monday morning and I caught up with Davey for a couple of hours that afternoon as well.

"I didn't deliberately catch up with them separately. I caught up with Davey in Brisbane before we went to the UAE because I wanted to see him face to face.

"It's one thing exchanging text messages and emails, (but) you have to talk face to face. We had a great catch-up.

"It was the first time I'd seen Steven the other day. I wanted it to be between us because there's lots to be spoken about and then over time we'll bring the brotherhood together and everything will be OK. It was great.

"I speak to Cameron Bancroft a bit. They've been through a tough 12 months.

"They've been penalised for making a really big mistake, no doubt about that, but we've got to get them into the group and every opportunity we get is a positive one."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar