STEVE SMITH Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
STEVE SMITH AND DAVID WARNER'S JOURNEY BACK TO SOUTH AFRICA:
* March 2018: Australian cricket goes into crisis mode when Cameron Bancroft is caught tampering with the ball during the third Test in Cape Town. Smith and Warner receive 12-month bans for their role in the premeditated plan. Smith is also stripped of the captaincy.
* June 2018: Smith and Warner return to cricket in the Global T20 Canada tournament.
* September 2018: The pair make their first cricketing appearances in Australia since being suspended, turning out for their respective grade cricket sides in NSW.
* March-April 2019: Smith and Warner are thrust back into the global spotlight when they return to action in the IPL. No longer banned, they are named in Australia's 15-man World Cup squad.
* June-July 2019: The duo make their long-anticipated return in Australia's opening group stage match against Afghanistan. Warner scores 89 not out and is named man of the match. He goes on to finish the tournament as Australia's leading run-scorer. Australia are knocked out in the semi-finals.
* August-September 2019: Smith and Warner line up for the first Ashes Test in Edgbaston and are booed relentlessly by English fans. Smith scores centuries in both innings to guide the tourists to a crushing victory. He goes on to plunder 774 runs for the series. A battling Warner is dismissed by Stuart Broad seven times but Australia retain the urn, with the series drawn 2-2.
* October 2019 - January 2020: Warner enjoys a spectacular summer across all formats that begins with a T20 century against Sri Lanka and culminates in an unbeaten 335 against Pakistan in the Adelaide Test. Smith has a rare quiet patch in the Tests but is a standout in an ODI tour of India.
* February 2020: Warner is named Australia's male cricketer of the year, taking out the Allan Border Medal ahead of second-placed Smith. The pair return to South Africa for the first time since the Cape Town saga to play three T20s and three ODIs, including a T20 at Newlands.
