For series-compensated line, the distance relay finds its limitations during voltage inversion, current inversion, load encroachment, power swing and balanced fault during the power swing. These limitations can be overcome by wide-area backup protection schemes. This study proposes a novel fault detection technique utilising the synchrophasor data of voltage and current signals at system protection centre. The algorithm compares the phase angle difference between positive-sequence voltage phasor under system intact condition and real-time positive-or negative-sequence current phasor, which is computed from the synchronised data obtained from phasor data concentrator after identifying the possible critical buses to which the faulted line is connected. Different cases of fault type, distance and resistance have been considered to validate the proposed scheme with 3-generator, 9-bus western system coordinating council using MATLAB/Simulink platform. The results justify the suitability of the proposed scheme to be deployed for achieving more reliable performance. Nomenclature V¯f pre-fault positive-sequence voltage phasor at the fault location I¯f fault current phasor through the fault resistance Z¯1 1 , Z¯2 1 positive-sequence impedances behind buses 1 and 2 Z¯1 2 , Z¯2 2 negative-sequence impedances behind buses 1 and 2 Z¯1 0 , Z¯2 0 zero-sequence impedances behind buses 1 and 2 Z¯L 1 1 , Z¯L 2 1 positive-sequence transmission line impedances between fault point and buses 1 and 2 Z¯L 1 2 , Z¯L 2 2 negative-sequence transmission line impedances between fault point and buses 1 and 2 Z¯L 1 0 , Z¯L 2 0 0 positive-, negative-and zero-sequence current phasors observed at bus-2