Warner more fluent than Smith as duo has first Australia nets since end of ban

It was another small and slightly symbolic milestone. For the first time in more than a year, Steven Smith and David Warner were hitting cricket balls as part of an Australian squad. Warner middled more than Smith, which is pretty much what it has been like for the past six weeks at the IPL.

Both have been ill over the last few days so while the camp in Brisbane officially started on Friday this was the first full day for them. It remains to be seen whether they both play the opening match against New Zealand on Monday - Australia are certainly not short of players this week with members of the Australia A squad also in attendance - or are staggered across the three games.

There are, it's probably worth reminding, a few other things for Australia to settle on before the World Cup than just the return of Smith and Warner.

However, it remains the main story in town for now. The bans officially ended on March 29, but it has been the slow comeback: a quick meeting in the UAE, the IPL, now Brisbane, with more warm-up matches to come in England before the World Cup opener against Afghanistan on June 1.

Warner had an easier afternoon that Smith under the pristine blue skies of a perfect Brisbane autumn day. He faced a bit of spin and then plenty of throwdowns from head coach Justin Langer. As at the IPL, most of his shots came out of the middle.

"You rarely see him out of form," Glenn Maxwell said of Warner before the session started. "He's such a good player and you look at his stats over there in the IPL, what he's done for Hyderabad - he's got an unbelievable record. I think he's scored over 500 runs every time he's been over there, which is amazing consistency and hopefully that continues in the one-day stuff here."

Smith, his troublesome elbow still well strapped and occasionally being flexed, also began in the spinners' net before facing the challenge of the pacemen. Mitchell Starc, Sean Abbott and Michael Neser ran in hard (the latter two part of the Australia A squad) with more deliveries squirting off both edges of Smith's bat than the centre - which didn't escape Smith's notice at one stage - but a couple of leg-side flicks showed promise.

"They're both superstars," Maxwell said. "Steve made back-to-back fifties at the end there [at the IPL] as well and I watched both of them go about it as well, and they were absolutely brilliant over there. They're striking the ball really nicely so there'll be no worries about them coming back in."

Starc looked especially impressive after recovering from the pectoral injury he sustained in the second Test against Sri Lanka in February, which ruled him out of the one-day tours of India and UAE. He produced a searing delivery which climbed at Shaun Marsh to hammer into the gloves and was constantly testing Smith's technique as he got to the ball to shape back.

The main injury concern in the Australia camp remains Jhye Richardson after the dislocated shoulder he sustained in the UAE. On Friday, Langer said he hoped to have a better idea early in the week about Richardson's prognosis. Kane Richardson and Josh Hazlewood, the latter who didn't make the World Cup squad due to his back injury, are the first-choice reserves and are both attending the camp although Hazlewood won't be available for the New Zealand matches.

One final point worth noting about these three games is that they are scheduled to finish at 5pm. At this time of the year in Brisbane, even on a perfectly clear day, the light was barely playable at that point. While the results of these matches are not the important thing, it could be worth the chasing side having the DLS score handy. Which, coming into a World Cup, perhaps is not a bad practice anyway.