Red-ball captain Tim Paine has admitted the "annoying" Test series defeat to India still "grinds" him, adding that Australia now has a better all round side which is pumped up to take on the holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India had stunned Australia 2-1 to win their maiden Test series Down Under in 2018-19, which was Paine's first assignment as skipper on home soil. The wicket-keeper batman was handed the charge of leading the Baggy Greens after the 2018 ball-tampering incident that saw the then skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner being slapped with year-long bans.

"Certainly for me sitting back it still annoys me that we lost that Test series," Paine told 2GB's Wide World of Sports radio. "Whether we had Steve or David or not you don't want to be losing any Test matches or Test series you're involved in, so that still grinds me a little bit," Paine added. The 35-year-old said the every player involved in the loss has improved in the last couple of years. "We're a much better all round side. Not just adding Steve and David back into it, which is a hell of a lot of runs to add back into a side, but I think every other cricketer in that team has improved in the last 18 months as well and we've been playing some really good cricket.