This young Indian team managed to win hearts

The final Test was another hard-fought contest with the bat dominating the ball due to fairly benign conditions at the SCG.

Most of the pitches were in favour of the batsmen and it was probably only the Gabba that had a little bit of extra pace and bounce, more like Australian wickets traditionally are. Certainly at Sydney the batsmen had the final say, really, and it was always going to be tough to force a result.

In the end, India did very well to bat it out for an honourable draw and gain a lot of plaudits for their fighting quality. Australia did win the series but India won hearts. The first couple of matches were a tight run with a couple of decisions and few periods of play that could have gone one way or the other.

India didn’t quite nail the key moments but overall, for a very young side, they won a lot of friends in Australia for the way they fought. If you just look at Sydney, they got belted from pillar to post conceding 572/7 in just over a day and three-quarters and you got the feeling that maybe they would capitulate under that sort of pressure but they fought hard.

Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay were fantastic throughout and Ajinkiya Rahane looks like a very accomplished player. The batting was a real feature for the Indians throughout the series and the signs are looking good for them going forward. They just need their strike bowlers to be a lot more consistent with their lines and lengths: they’ve got the pace but lack of consistency has cost them on good batting surfaces. So there’s plenty of room for improvement there.

I’d like to see a left-arm spinner in the line-up, particularly against sides like Australia who struggle more with that type of bowling compared to off-spin. I thought Ravichandran Ashwin did a commendable job overall — it’s always difficult when you’re bowling first to contain the opposition on flat tracks.

India need an all-rounder in the style of Ravi Shastri to bat within the top six and bowl some left-arm spin. That would be a really good inclusion for the Indian boys.

As for Australia, we always have high expectations of them, especially when they are playing at home. We demolished England last year on the back of Mitchell Johnson — he wasn’t at his absolute best this series — but the Indian batting showed a lot more steel.

The pitches were not as bouncy and pacy as we would have liked it, negating the bowling to a certain degree but in the end they bowled well and created enough chances to win a couple of matches. The batsmen held sway: Warner continues to improve and impress and obviously Steven Smith was the standout performer. It was just quite incredible how he kept the momentum going from the first ball he faced to the last ball he faced. Your side is going to do well with one of your batsmen scoring so heavily!

— Gameplan