Smith leadership 'process' ongoing: Langer

Coach Justin Langer says Australia's Dettol T20 against India on Sunday was too early for Steve Smith to regain the captaincy, but the former skipper's time may come in the future.

Smith's 24-month leadership ban, imposed by Cricket Australia in the aftermath of the ball-tampering saga, expired in March.

But when skipper Aaron Finch was ruled out of the match at the SCG, and with vice-captain taking a break ahead of the Vodafone Test Series, Matthew Wade was named captain, ahead of Smith.

Langer, chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns and CA officials had previously failed to deliver any concrete answers regarding where Smith sits in the captaincy conversation.

Finch's glute injury, coupled with Cummins being absence for the entire T20 series, meant they needed to make a call in Sydney.

Former vice-captains Josh Hazlewood and Alex Carey were also out of the XI.

But Wade was given the nod ahead of Smith, who led Australia in 51 one-dayers, 34 Tests and eight T20s prior to being stripped of the captaincy.

"Of course, we talked about a number of things," Langer told Fox Sports, when asked if Smith was considered.

"We've got so many options.

"Steve Smith has done a brilliant job in the past.

"There's probably a bit of a process we need to go through until he becomes captain again. We'll go through that.

"When the English crowd gave him a standing ovation at The Oval last year - talk about earning respect ...  he's doing all the right things to show leadership without a title at the moment."

Wade's appointment as vice-captain in the T20 series opener suggested he was always in the box-seat to step up if Finch was forced to miss Sunday's clash.

But former Test captain Mark Taylor was among those suggesting it was a golden opportunity to reinstate Smith, who recently led Rajasthan during the IPL.

"There's no doubt mistakes were made two-and-a-half years ago now in Cape Town. There's been penalties and they've been served," Taylor told the Nine Network.

"Now we've got to move on. Steve Smith is still looked at by this side as a leader.

"He's a senior player."

Dettol T20 INTL Series v India 2020

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, D'Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa

India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur

First T20: India won by 11 runs

Second T20: India won by six wickets with two balls to spare

Third T20: December 8, SCG, 7.10pm AEDT