Draw in Ahmedabad Test gives India 16th successive series win at home

India v Australia scorecard

The final day of the fourth Test of the series began with the tourists 88 runs behind the India total. Rohit Sharma tossed the ball to his trusted bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammad Shami.

And soon enough, Ashwin provided a breakthrough by trapping the makeshift opener Matthew Kuhnemann lbw. This however proved to be a false dawn, as Travis Head (90) and Marnus Labuschagne (63*) ensured that the India attack laboured on a true batting surface.

The duo pretty much ended chances of an India victory by batting out almost 50 overs, before Head fell to a beauty from Axar Patel.

This was Patel’s 50th Test wicket. He became the fastest Indian player to reach the landmark (in terms of balls bowled).

Post-tea, a draw seemed to be the only result possible. With the game meandering nowhere, the sides shook hands in the 79th over of Australia's innings.

Virat Kohli won the Player of the Match award for his stunning 186 at Ahmedabad. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were the joint-winners of the Player of the Series award. Both made crucial all-round contributions: Ashwin picked 25 wickets and scored 86 runs, while Jadeja picked 22 wickets and scored 135 runs.

With this draw, India took the series 2-1. This is India’s fourth successive Test series win over Australia.

Overall, India have won 10 out of 16 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

They have now won their last 16 Test series at home.

India qualify for the WTC final

As India and Australia walked out to play the second session, New Zealand’s thrilling two-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Christchurch had ensured that the two sides would feature in the ICC World Test Championship final to be played from 7 June.

After this result, Sri Lanka will finish below India in the WTC standings, irrespective of the result in the second Test at Wellington.

India seal WTC final spot