'He served his time like I did' - Steve Smith extends support to David Warner after he withdrew his leadership ban review

Australian batter Steve Smith has extended support to his teammate David Warner and said that his lifetime captaincy ban is completely wrong. He further backed the opener to return to form soon.

Warner was handed the ban for his involvement in the sandpapergate scandal in the 2018 Cape Town Test where Smith was also involved. Smith, however, served his punishment and had returned to captaincy and led Australia to victory over West Indies in the second Test on Saturday.

"From my point of view, banning for life from leadership is just fundamentally wrong," Smith said after Australia's 419-run victory. "David served his time like I did. For us, we know he's a leader around the group, and on and off the field he's doing a tremendous job."

Warner recently withdrew his application to have his ban reviewed and Smith said the whole incident has been a distraction for the opener, who has struggled to get a big score recently. However, he backed the 36-year-old to regain his touch against South Africa.

"It's been a difficult one for him, it's been a difficult week," Smith said. "It has been more of a distraction for Davey, no doubt, going through that himself. David has said he's done and dusted and get on with it. He's got our full support. Hopefully he can have a really big series for us against South Africa with the bat."

David Warner is arguably the best-ever opener for Australia : Steve Smith

Smith also heaped praise on Warner by calling him a once-in-a-lifetime player.

"Davey's a once-in-a-generation player, he's arguably the best-ever opener for Australia," he said. "The way he's able to put pressure on bowlers from the outset helps everyone down the order as well.”

"He's been an incredible player for a long period of time, his record suggest that. There's no reason why he can't have a big series for us coming this week as well. He's batting nicely. He hasn't had a great deal of luck lately either, it seems like every time he gets an inside edge, it goes onto the stumps. A lot of the time when you're scoring runs you need some luck,” Smith added.