Smith and Warner have returned from year-long bans following a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa which also prompted Lehmann to step down as coach of the side in March last year.
Paceman Mitchell Johnson is still a class act despite a poor first Test with the ball but Australia know he will not get the fast pitches he thrives on in the rest of the Ashes series, coach Darren Lehmann said.
A mis-firing Australia head into the second Test against South Africa in Hobart under pressure to save the series and avert a full-blown crisis which would almost certainly be triggered by a fifth consecutive Test defeat.
There was general consensus in Australia on Wednesday that retaining the Ashes this year got a little bit harder after the appointment of wily compatriot Trevor Bayliss as England's new head coach.
'The world simply wants to see you cry, once you have cried they will feel satisfied and live happily ever after,' lamented India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin while expressing solidarity with the disgraced Steve Smith and David Warner.
Australia's Shane Watson will miss the next three one-day internationals against England after the all-rounder, already rested for the second match in Brisbane, was ruled out of the subsequent contests in Sydney and Perth.
Cricket Australia (CA) named Trevor Hohns as the full-time chairman of its National Selection Panel on Friday, effecting a structural change to improve the rankings of the underperforming Twenty20 side.
The 33-year-old Aussie batsman has scored three centuries in his past eight Test innings.
The 50-year-old Lehmann suggested dividing responsibilities on the basis of formats.
The trio of Bancroft, Smith and Warner were banned for their roles in the ball tampering scandal.
The 49-year-old's Twitter account was hacked on Monday and the hacker had posted derogatory anti-Iran tweets.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann has turned the blowtorch on Nathan Lyon, saying the spinner had not "delivered" in second innings spells to drive the Test team to victory.
With two confident teams going head-to-head in a blockbuster World Cup semi-final on Thursday, it could be the tiniest mis-judgement, the smallest detail that decides whether Australia or India emerge triumphant.
Coach Darren Lehmann gave Australia a mark of '7.5' out of 10 for a year in which they won the World Cup but lost the Ashes, the series most prized by home fans.
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has been ruled out of next week's fourth Test against India because of the injury he sustained to his right hamstring during the third game in Melbourne.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann admitted his players have been watching videos of Virat Kohli and his team mates for months but are yet to work out how to combat the India skipper.
Cricket Australia's high performance director Pat Howard has taken the blame for the Ashes capitulation and put himself forward as the first person to be held to account in a post-series review.
Rubbishing those claims, Clarke said 'The players are as tight as any team I've been a part of'
Australia railed at suggestions their team resembled a 'Dad's Army' but the evidence supplied by the first four Ashes Tests against England suggests it was not an unfair moniker.
'We just have to pick the right three fast bowlers to take the 20 wickets in that first Ashes Test'
Wives and partners of team members cheering on their men.
Factbox on Saturday's World Cup match between Australia and Bangladesh.
Steven Smith will lead Australia in Friday's tri-series match against England in absence of suspended George Bailey, Cricket Australia said on Tuesday.
Former captain Ricky Ponting has become the third ex-international to take on an interim coaching role with the Australian Twenty20 team next month.
Former Australia cricket team captain Mark Taylor has said that next week's rescheduled first Test against India would allow the nation's grieving cricketers to start moving on from Phillip Hughes's shock passing.
Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is in a race to be fit for the Test series against India after being ruled out of Australia's One-Day series against South Africa.
South Africa fast bowling great Allan Donald will join Australia as bowling coach for their tour of Sri Lanka this year, local media reported on Wednesday.
While ODI captain Aaron Finch said the team backed Justin Langer "100%", reports of players being put off by the coach's "grumpy" temperament have continued to surface.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann apologised to the public and called for forgiveness for the "grave mistake" made by the trio of Test players banned for their role in the ball-tampering scandal that has rocked the sport.
The trio, stripped of their positions, will discover the full extent of their punishment in the next "24 hours" with Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland promising "significant sanctions" at a news conference in Johannesburg.
'We hope the boys can find the inner strength to play the game in the way Phillip would have wanted in Adelaide' 'We left a bit of heart in Macksville yesterday'
Cricketing world in shock over Phil Hughes' death.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann has been rewarded for his integral role in turning around the fortunes of the team with a one-year contract extension until June, 2017, Cricket Australia said on Friday.
'If you have a captain of India who is not interested in Test cricket that will impact the scene. Virat loves Test cricket, he champions Test cricket, and while that's happening India will play Test cricket.'
Australia stand-in skipper David Warner has admitted that he is usually the main 'culprit' whenever there is sledging going on but added that he understands the responsibility that comes with his new role.
Australia has rested pace spearhead Josh Hazlewood for the remainder of the home international season which includes the remaining three ODIs of the five match series and the following three T20 internationals. The home side is already missing their premier fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Patt Cummins owing to injury, with senior paceman Mitchell Johnson announcing retirement. Pacer John Hastings has been retained as Hazlewood's replacement for the third ODI, set to take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday.
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen pulled out of this year's Indian Premier League after withdrawing his name from the player's auction scheduled later this month.
Australia replaced injured batsman Shaun Marsh with Phillip Hughes on Thursday while clearing fit-again paceman Jackson Bird to join the team in South Africa for the three-Test series starting on February 12.
Australia replaced injured batsman Shaun Marsh with Phillip Hughes on Thursday while clearing fit-again paceman Jackson Bird to join the team in South Africa for the three-Test series starting on February 12.
The World Twenty20 Championships to be held next month in India are nothing but a "waste of time", feels former Australian pacer Ryan Harris. A day after Australia were whitewashed 3-0 by India in a T20 series, Harris said there is no point in having a Twenty20 World Cup when the sides involved do not play too many of such games on a regular basis. "Personally I think it's a waste of time having a Twenty20 World Cup," Harris, who retired from the game last year, told 'SEN Radio'. "Last year we played one T20 (against England in August). This year because there's a World Cup I think we play six - there's three more in South Africa before they get over there (to India).
