The Indian Cricket Team made it clear how much winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and a Test series in Australia means to them.

India ended a 71-year wait for a Test series victory in Australia on Monday, their 2-1 triumph finally confirmed when the rain-affected fourth and final Test ended in a draw at Sydney Cricket Ground early on Monday afternoon.

The finale may have ultimately have turned out to be a damp squib but Virat Kohli's tourists utterly dominated what action there was to deservedly become the first side from the Asian sub-continent to take the honours Down Under.

Wins in the first Test in Adelaide and third in Melbourne ensured they could not lose the series and their batsmen, led by a 193 from Cheteshwar Pujara, batted Australia out of the fourth match with a daunting 622-7 declared total in the first innings.

That all but destroyed home hopes of a face-saving victory and India's spinners then got to work to drive home the advantage in the field against an Australia side that failed to muster a single century over the series.

The hosts were duly dismissed for 300 and Kohli did not hesitate to go for the jugular by enforcing the follow-on — the first time in 30 years Australia had suffered such ignominy on home soil.

Ultimately, it was the Sydney weather that saved Australia from a 3-1 humiliation with no play possible after tea on day four, when they had mustered up six runs without loss in their second innings.

For some Australians the series will always carry an asterisk given their two best batsmen, Steve Smith and David Warner, were unavailable because of bans they received for the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa last year.

Tim Paine's side were unable to paper over the cracks left by their absence, and even the vaunted pace attack of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins failed to fire, except for spells in the victory in Perth.