'All the time I'm thinking about batting in England' – Paine has Ashes on his mind

Paine, who took over as skipper following the Cape Town sandpaper scandal, has had a tough tenure in charge of the red-ball team, leading a depleted side while also trying to win back respect in the eyes of the Australian public. He's grown into his own as a leader, and the Ashes to follow the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 will be one of his biggest challenges.

"All the time I'm batting in the nets now, whether that's good or bad I'm not sure, I'm thinking about batting over there [in England]," he said in an interview to Cricbuzz. "You know the improvements I want to make to my game are for when I get there.

"This is obviously the biggest series I'll ever be involved in, and I think I'll clearly get only one chance to play an international series in England. That's a dream come true for me as a kid growing up, watching it on telly, and realising how big it is over there, and how hard it is to win, and being a part of a series like that is the pinnacle for me.

"I want to make sure I'm at my absolute best when I get over there."

Paine can expect his side for the Ashes to be slightly stronger than the one that lost at home to India. For one, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft will be available for selection after serving their bans, and are expected to return to the squad.

The captain was looking forward to their comeback, and not only because of their considerable batting abilities. "We are really looking forward to get those guys back in around our team," he said. "When that happens, we can completely sort of start to move forward.

"There's always been that sort of in the background, where we're trying to move forward but we know that these guys are going to be back at some stage. So it'll be great when they actually are back, and we can all look into the future."

With the team having struggled with the bat against India, Paine was also encouraged at the options they suddenly seemed to have after recent Sheffield Shield games. "We are starting to get more depth," he said. "Bancroft as well scored a lot of runs in his first game back. Marcus Harris has got a 100 and something not out and 90 in the first innings. Kurtis Patterson has scored another hundred, Travis Head is scoring consistent runs and Matthew Wade is scoring consistent runs.

"Suddenly you've got a backlog of batters, and 12 months ago, we thought the cupboard was pretty bare."