It was a series that swung one way and then the other with some star players performing and others struggling.
The pair represent England’s next two Test series opponents (aside from a one-off game against Zimbabwe in May), so what can Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes learn from the Border-Gavaskar duel down under?
BBC Sport and data analysts CricViz have looked at some of the key trends.
The 37-year-old scored 31 runs in five innings – an average of 6.20 – with a high score of 10.
It follows a general decline for the right-hander, with his 23.1 average since December 2023 the second lowest among batters to score 400-plus runs in that time (behind only New Zealand’s Tom Blundell).
His struggles are stark against pace, where he is averaging just 17.1 compared to a career average of 37.5. He’s being dismissed every 28.4 balls by a seamer, compared to 69 across his career.
That could be attributed to a new weakness off the back foot. It was a great strength, with his average of 58.4 off the back foot until November 2023 among the top 25% of players.
Since the start of December 2023 though, that average has dropped to 16.4 – the lowest of all players.
Speaking after the defeat in Sydney, India head coach Gautam Gambhir said: “I can’t talk about the future of any player, it’s up to them as well.
“But what I can say is that they still have the hunger, they still have the passion, they’re tough people. And hopefully they can continue to take Indian cricket forward.”
Kohli’s decline continues
Another India batter that struggled was Virat Kohli. He scored 190 runs at an average of 23.75, but that is helped by one century. He had five single-figure scores in eight other innings.
Similarly to Rohit, it is a trend in Kohli’s career. From his debut to 2019 he averaged 54.97, but that has dropped to 30.72 since 2020. It drops even further to 22.47 in his past 10 Tests.
Since the start of 2024, his average of 23.2 is the ninth lowest among players with a minimum of 10 innings.
He is still capable of great innings and moments – and he’s still as fired-up as ever in the field – but there are ways to target him.
Australia seamer Scott Boland revealed their plans included switching lines to fifth stump once Kohli was settled at the crease and it brought dividends with all of Kohli’s dismissals caught behind or in the slips.
Kohli averaged 61 on the drive against pace until 2019, but that has dropped to 33.4.
In that first time period, he was dismissed once in every 96 defensive shots, but has dropped to 43 between 2020 and 2023 and 24 in his recent poor run.
His struggles outside off stump are well documented.
Since the start of 2020 Kohli averages just 11.1 to good & back-of-length deliveries in the channel. Since the start of 2024 his average is 3.71, with seven dismissals in 11 innings. For comparison the global average for top-order batters (one to four) is 19.84 between 2011 and 2025.
It is an area England are bound to target if Kohli remains part of the fold this summer.