Kohli exits knowing things can only get better

India captain Virat Kohli leaves Australia and the Vodafone Series in the aftermath of the most abject batting performance in the nation's Test history, but takes solace from knowing his team can only improve even with their best batter missing from action.

India had hoped to make a strong start to their Border-Gavaskar defence in the opening Test in Adelaide, aware their emblematic skipper was available only for that match before returning to be with wife Anushka Sharma for the impending birth of the couple's first child.

But the world's second-ranked Test batter (behind Australia's Steve Smith) could not have foreseen the depths to which India plunged in his final innings before paternity leave, bowled out for 36 – their lowest-ever Test score.

Not only does Kohli's absence leave a huge hole in the team's middle-order – he was the only India batter to reach 50 in the first Test – but his inspirational leadership was crucial to India's historic first Test series win in Australia two summers ago.

In addition, India have less than a week to regroup for the second Test in Melbourne with injury doubts over their most experienced seamer Mohammed Shami (blow to the right forearm) and form concerns surrounding opener Prithvi Shaw.

However, Kohli believes the harsh lessons learned in Adelaide yesterday will forge a stronger team for the Boxing Day fixture at the MCG and subsequent Tests in Sydney and Brisbane.

"I am very, very confident that we will definitely learn from this," he said in the wake of India's eight-wicket loss inside three days at Adelaide Oval.

"I don't think we have ever had a worse batting performance so we can only go upwards from here and understand as a team we can do special things when we think of partnerships and batting together.

"So I am very, very confident that we will bounce back strongly in the next one, and I have no doubts you will see guys stepping up and really realising their true character."

Kohli conceded the 53-run lead India took into their second innings, which had grown to 62 for the loss of Shaw at the close of day two, might have worked against them because they perhaps collectively believed it was less of an advantage than it should have been.

Australia were 7-111 and 133 adrift of India's first innings total on Friday evening when skipper Tim Paine (on 26) was dropped by Mayank Agarwal from a miscued pull shot.

It was one of at least five chances India fumbled in the field, but Kohli identified it as a key moment given Paine went on to score 73 not out and, with Australia's tailenders, added a further 80 to the total.

That shift in balance weighed heavily on India's batters come the second innings as they went into their shells in a bid to protect their slim advantage rather than play positively to set their opponents a challenging target, Kohli claimed.

"A bit of a lead can always be tricky because as a batting unit you can very well go into a head space where you feel like 'we are just 50 or 60 ahead and don't want to lose early wickets' so that the opposition comes into the game," he said.

"You always have to be positive – you can't afford to think like that.

"I think we didn't have enough intent to go out there with a plan of taking the game forward. 

"Everything hit the edge, everything just happened so quickly that no-one could make any sense of it. 

"It was quite disappointing because the position we were in from day two, to have an hour-and-a-half like that was very, very surprising and disappointing for everyone."

Indeed, Kohli claimed it was India's lack of intent and clear plans with the bat that brought about yesterday's epic failure more so than the brilliance of Australia's pace attack led by Josh Hazlewood (5-8) and Pat Cummins (4-21).

He shared Hazlewood's view the Adelaide pitch contained few demons, but added that India's hesitancy with the bat flattered the Australia quicks who claimed an extraordinary 9-27 from 15.2 overs in Saturday's first session.

"It's a strange one to be honest because the ball didn't do much," Kohli said after surrendering a 0-1 lead in the four-match Vodafone Series.

"They bowled similar lengths in the first innings as well, and we were just better in terms of handling it and having a plan around it and how to go about things.

"We lacked intent because we probably should have just seen where the game needs to go rather than where it has come to until now, and keep moving forward which we were not able to do.

"I think the way we batted allowed them to look more potent than they probably were because they bowled similar lengths in the first innings as well and we batted way, way better in the first innings than we did in the second innings."

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (c) (first Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT