The big talking points from Australia's series loss to India

And that’s all she wrote, folks. A series that was never meant to be even close ended up being a thriller, but with Australia’s eight-wicket loss in the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is headed back to India.

That the series made it all the way to a deciding Test makes the loss all the more painful for Australian fans, particularly given how quickly the wheels fell off during the final match.

Having been cruising at 1-144 during the first innings on a pitch that seemed more suited to the tourists than India, it almost defies belief that the next 19 Australian wickets fell for a paltry 293 runs.

» Match Report: Australia lose Test, trophy at Dharamsala
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» How it happened: Day 4 live blog
» Australia versus India 4th Test scorecard

While the loss is going to sting for some time now, there are plenty of positives to take from the series – let’s not forget this Australian side was written off by just about everybody prior to the series (including yours truly) yet ended up forcing a decider despite the loss of their main strike bowler midway through the tour.

Here are the main talking points to emerge from the series.

Steve Smith is a freak

Coming into the series, it was obvious the bulk of Australia’s runs were going to have to come from the skipper. Suffice to say, Steve Smith delivered.

His three centuries are a record for an Australian in a four-match Test series in India, while his 499 runs only sit behind Matthew Hayden’s historic efforts from 2000-01.

Making Smith’s series even more impressive were the contrasting situations in which he made his hundreds. His ton in the second innings in Pune – arguably his finest ever hundred – was a typical captain’s knock; a gritty, over-my-dead-body effort on a minefield of a pitch that helped lead Australia to victory.

His second hundred at Ranchi, while no less gritty, was a different beast entirely, a marathon-length, chanceless knock that saw him finish unbeaten on 178, while the third saw Smith take the attack to India’s bowling, piling on the runs both quickly and with ease in the series decider.

It’s now evident that Smith is going to finish his career in the upper echelon of Test cricket’s greatest ever batsmen, should he continue in this vein of form.

He currently boasts an average of 61 with 20 hundreds. While that former number may well drop a little, with another eight to ten years of cricket ahead of him (Smith is still just 27), the latter is on track to reach historic heights.

Sledging makes for great viewing

It’s fair to say tensions were running high between the two teams this series. Whether it was Steve Smith’s “brain-fade”, the cheeky digs at Virat Kohli’s injured shoulder, or Matthew Wade’s verbal torrent directed at Ravindra Jadeja, spot fires continued to break out throughout the series.

There are generally two schools of thought which arise when cricket gets a little ugly. One is it’s a terrible look for the game and needs to be reeled in, while the other runs in the complete opposite direction.

Whatever your thoughts on the matter, you cannot deny it makes the cricket that much more riveting. Australians might not have liked it when Virat Kohli went to within two syllables of saying Steve Smith cheated, and Indians sure as hell didn’t like Glenn Maxwell’s decision to grab his shoulder after a diving effort on the same patch of grass that saw Kohli injure himself, but both incidents only added to the spectacle of the series.

With Test cricket struggling for relevance in most parts of the world, is it really the worst thing to have these verbal stoushes and clashes making headlines and focusing attention on the sport?

Shaun Marsh is finished as a Test cricketer

Making such a clear-cut prediction is a sure-fire way to end up looking a fool, but this series has to have confirmed to the Australian selectors that Shaun Marsh is not the answer to whatever question they’re asking.

A quick caveat: Marsh wasn’t the only poor batsman this series. David Warner continued his poor form in countries not called Australia or South Africa, Peter Handscomb made too many starts without converting them into meaningful contributions, and Matthew Wade is still yet to convince this author that he’s a superior keeper-batsman to the man he replaced.

However, the list of series averages says Marsh was the worst of the bunch. Despite making two fifties, including a crucial match-saving effort in Ranchi, he averaged a paltry 18.87 for the series. For a man brought into the side as a noted player of spin, that’s nowhere near good enough.

With Australia’s next Test series next summer’s home Ashes campaign, Usman Khawaja must be returned to the batting line-up at the expense of Marsh.

Glenn Maxwell, though…

Now this was an unexpected boost for Australia. Maxwell’s Sheffield Shield form this season spoke for itself, and 129 runs at 25.8 didn’t exactly scream ‘Test cricketer’.

His maiden Test hundred, however, did.

Rather than the swashbuckling onslaught we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Maxwell, the first innnings in Ranchi saw the Victorian wait 56 balls for his first boundary. By the time he departed, Maxwell had faced 185 balls, hit just 11 boundaries and become the second Australian to score an international hundred in all three formats of the game.

Two failures in his next two innings ensued, but his team-high 45 in the disastrous second innings in Dharamsala showed Maxwell has finally developed the temperament for Test cricket to match his astounding natural talent.

Two innings do not a Test cricketer make, but they’re a significant improvement on Maxwell’s previous effort’s in the game’s longest format, and should see him picked for the Ashes come November.

Pat Cummins is a star

Forget the ifs, buts and maybes, toss out anything starting with “with some more experience…” or “in a few years.” As of now, Pat Cummins is a genuine, Test-quality strike bowler.

When drafted into the side to cover the injured Mitchell Starc, eyebrows were raised. Could Cummins perform on dead Indian pitches? Was he fit enough? Was one Sheffield Shield game enough preparation for a Test comeback five years in the making?

In order: yes, yes, and yes.

While Cummins has the reputation of a tearaway quick, he bowled with genuine nous throughout the two Tests, mixing up aggressive bouncer barrages with full, swinging deliveries and the odd slower ball.

Eight wickets at 30.25 doesn’t make for the most eye-catching figures over two matches, but when you take into account the (very) flat pitch in Ranchi, two dropped catches off his bowling in the first innings in Dharamsala and the fact Cummins was at least slightly underdone heading into the tour, there’s plenty to get excited about from his Test return.

Those figures also don’t reveal the pace and aggression Cummins bowled with, nor that he regularly looked to be the man most likely to take a wicket.

England are surely quaking in their boots.

Speaking of which…

Australia is going to win the Ashes

The loss to India hurts oh so much now, but it’s clear there are more positives than negatives to come out of the series. The form and grit displayed by Matthew Renshaw, the discipline of the bowling attack, and the aforementioned performances of Smith, Maxwell and Cummins all bode well for the future.

Plus, England toured India not so long ago, and the series was nothing short of a disaster for them. As far as form guides go, it doesn’t bode well for the Old Enemy.

Should Glenn Maxwell deservedly keep his spot in the Test side come November, the selectors will have the opportunity to unleash a fearsome pace battery on England.

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Cummins and James Pattinson bowling together in the creams of the Australian Test side will be a sight to behold for cricket fans here, particularly with the first three matches of the Ashes being played at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval at night and the WACA, all pitches that should favour the quicks.

That pace attack, coupled with a more experienced Renshaw, the comfort of playing at home for the likes of David Warner, Peter Handscomb and Usman Khawaja, and Steve Smith’s seemingly endless purple patch should ensure Australia reclaims the famous urn on home soil.

A rare series victory in India has gone begging, but it’s not all doom and gloom for Australian cricket – far from it.