The make-up of the Australian XI remains a source of intrigue, with Smith and Warner - mainstays in the ICC's top six Test batting rankings despite their 12-month exile - free to return on March 29.

Paine has been the pin-up boy of a new era after being thrust into the leadership role following the damaging sandpaper scandal that derailed the careers of the former captain and his deputy.

Fresh off Australia's first series win since Smith and Warner formed the engine room of the batting line-up, gloveman Paine is comfortable the outed pair have paid their dues.

"I think everyone has, to a degree, got to earn their stripes. Those two have plenty of runs in the bank," Paine said.

"I see us going to the Ashes and them having a huge part in us winning the series. That's how I see how important they are to this team.

"We know how good they are. Hopefully once their bans are up they'll be welcomed back and they'll win Test matches like they did beforehand.

"We spoke at the start of the summer about our main priority was to win back the respect of the Australian public and our cricket fans. Sitting here now we’ve gone a long way toward doing that.

"It's in difficult times you see the characters you’ve got in your group and its confirmed to us we’ve got some good characters, some strong characters and some people we can build a really strong Australian cricket future on."

The third member of the banned trio is Cameron Bancroft, the man seen slipping sandpaper down his strides in Cape Town, who could also come into the reckoning for the Ashes tour.

Australia will enter the series riding a two-Test winning streak - albeit one that will have come six months prior against an undermanned Sri Lankan outfit.

Naysayers will be quick to cut Australia down after they capped off a dominant series whitewash over Sri Lanka in Canberra on Monday.

But Paine is adamant they can beat anyone in the world with that sort of showing, and even the English look vulnerable after they were dismantled by the West Indies for the second time running.

While the Ashes are still six months away, Paine has already spent six months thinking about becoming the first Australian captain to orchestrate an Ashes win since Steve Waugh.

Paine already has "a fair idea" of what his side will look like for the five-Test series beginning at Edgbaston on August 1.

But right now there remains up to 20 players in the mix, suggesting last-start centuries to Joe Burns, Travis Head, Kurtis Patterson and Usman Khawaja will weigh in their favour.

"I’ve been dreaming about it actually. I’m happy now that we’ve got this out of the way I can put everything into it," Paine said.

"Every Australian cricketer can’t wait to go and play an Ashes series and particularly in England, it’s something that I’ve certainly dreamed of as a kid, I didn’t think I’d be going over as the captain.

"In the back of my mind I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve been watching England, keeping a really close eye on them, I can’t wait to get over there."

The more pressing matter for Australian selectors right now is a one-day World Cup defence.

While Paine is not going to have the final say on the squad jetting to England to don canary yellow, he says "I'll have a word to JL and tell him I would like to play in the World Cup and see how that goes".