An elated Indian head coach Ravi Shastri called India’s maiden Test series win in Australia a bigger achievement than the 1983 World Cup victory for him on Monday. 

When asked how he felt after the historic victory, Shastri said, “I will tell you how satisfying this is for me. World Cup 1983, World Championship 1985...this is as big or even bigger because this is in the truest format of the game, that is Test cricket.”

Team 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.

(With agency inputs)