What started as a promising series under the leadership of a future leader turned into another disastrous defeat for India as they surrendered the Border Gavaskar Trophy to Australia in Sydney on Sunday.
World champions Australia had regrouped admirably after the shock defeat in the Perth Test and hardly put a foot wrong in the remaining four Tests, deservedly winning the series 3-1 after a comfortable six-wicket win in the final match.
India, who had been forced to stand down their regular captain Rohit Sharma for the deciding match owing to poor form and leadership, saw their last remaining hope of a fightback extinguish early in the morning when they were bowled out cheaply for 157, giving a victory target of just 162.
Star pacer and new captain Jasprit Bumrah might have made a difference had he been fit but a back injury that flared up in the first innings meant the visitor were without their biggest weapon on the most important day of the series.
In his absence, India's attack was dealt with comfortably. Even though pace bowlers Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj kept the tourists interested by removing the Australian order fairly early, Travis Head (34 not out) and debutant Beau Webster (39 not out), got Australia over the line to secure the series win and a spot in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's in June.
Australian seamer Scott Boland turned out to be difference between the two sides once again as he finished with 10 wickets in the match, taking his series tally to 21 in just three matches.
While Australia's main performers got better as the series wore on, with Head, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and captain Pat Cummins delivering consistently, India saw their stars fall apart.
Virat Kohli ended his tour the same way he started, edging an away going delivery behind. He got out in the same fashion throughout the series, putting a question mark over his place in the red-ball side moving forward, since the next assignment is in England where his weakness is expected to be exposed further.
Captain Rohit tried to put up a brave face in the Sydney Test, insisting he had stepped aside to provide better balance to the team and that he was not retiring any time soon. But the reality is he was forced out of the playing XI in a series deciding match and the team looked markedly better. Had Bumrah not got injured, India would have had realistic hopes of victory even with a low target in Sydney.
The Australia tour had already witnessed the sudden retirement of star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Rohit and Kohli also seem close to end of their careers, if not already there. However, coach Gautam Gambhir insisted it is not the end of the road for the star batsmen.
"I can't talk about the future of any player, it's up to them as well," Gambhir said.
"What I can say is that they still have the hunger, they still have the passion. They are tough people, and hopefully they can continue to take Indian cricket forward.
"But ultimately, whatever they plan, they will plan for the best interests of Indian cricket."
Gambhir also refused to blame the Sydney defeat on pace spearhead Bumrah's inability to bowl in the second innings.
"It would have been nice if he would have been there, but we still had five bowlers, and a good team is one which is not dependent on one individual," he said.
"We didn't get the result, as simple as that. We lost the series."
It turned out to be another disastrous outing for coach Gambhir, under whom India were blanked in an ODI series in Sri Lanka, got whitewashed in a home Test series - against New Zealand - for the first time in history and have now handed back the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.
Australia, meanwhile, celebrated their second straight WTC final qualification.
"It's unreal, it's been an amazing series," said Cummins. "I'm immensely proud, I absolutely love playing with these guys and it's been a lot of fun along the way as well."
Pacer Boland, playing as an injury replacement for Josh Hazlewood, was named player of the match after finishing with figures of 6-45 for a 10-wicket match haul. "To win 3-1 against India hasn't been done for a while and it's just awesome," said Boland.
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