John Buchanan was the head of the backroom staff of the near-invincible Australian side in the early 2000s. Buchanan partnered with Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting to make Australia one of the fiercest cricket teams ever across formats. Even during their dominance, a team that constantly threw a challenge at them was India. Led by Sourav Ganguly, the young Indian side halted Australia's record unbeaten run in 2001 at home and then went on to draw a series in Australia's backyard in 2003-04. They also met them in the final of the ODI World Cup final in 2003 but were blown away by Ponting's masterful century and Damien Martyn's strokeplay.

Over the years, the rivalry between India and Australia has only gone from strength to strength and in the last decade, India has had the upper hand in red-ball cricket, both home and away. India have won four Test series on the bounce against Australia and recently became the only team to beat Australia in Australia in successive series to take their overall tally of victories in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to 10.

For the first time since 1991-92, India will tour Australia for a five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the opening game scheduled to be played at Perth from November 22.

Buchanan said both India and Australia have plenty of ageing players at disposal but that will not be a deterrent to the competition between the sides.

Buchanan mentioned Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ashwin's age to make his point.

"I looked at the ages, and India has got some ageing players in that side; notably Rohit Sharma, who's 37, and Virat Kohli is 35, Ravichandran Ashwin, if he tours, he's 37, and you look at the Australian side, there's only one or two players who are under 30.

"It'll be very much a battle again between the very good pace bowling attacks of both sides and how well the top order players of both sides can deal with the ball that will bounce, seam and probably swing a little bit more in the day-night game in Adelaide," Buchanan told PTI on Thursday.

The former Australia head coach said a lot has changed since India beat the Aussies three years ago.

"Australia (has), since losing to India in the last series, the pace bowling attack with (off-spinner Nathan) Lyon, backed up now by Cameron Green or Mitch Marsh, is just a really, really powerful bowling lineup," he added.

"India's top order, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, (Rohit) Sharma himself, (Virat) Kohli, possibly Iyer… they've got to bat really well to establish totals and then the likes of (Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, (Mohammed) Siraj will come into their own," he said.

India's previous wins won't have an impact: Buchanan

Buchanan said there won't be much of a psychological impact of India's wins in Australia on the previous two tours given that two of the mainstays then — Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane — are not likely to be a part of the touring squad for the upcoming series.

"The previous series that India won — important from both, Indian perspective and an Australian perspective — a little bit of the mind games will go into the pre-series," he said.

“But for all that, those games have passed, those players are gone and the current players we have both in the Australian side and the Indian side, they're at a stage of their careers where they all want to perform.”