A range of factors are to blame for Australia's ineffectual performance with the ball in India's first innings of the final Test, including their physical state after long stints in the field at the MCG and SCG.
India's imposing score of 7(dec)-622 was the sixth highest by a visiting team in a Test in Australia, giving them the perfect platform to make their maiden series win in Australia all the more emphatic.
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon are all struggling in Sydney, producing their worst performances of the four-Test series.
Tim Paine noted the tourists benefited from forcing Australia to bowl for 167.2 overs at the SCG but also 169.4 overs during another taxing innings at the MCG.
"Absolutely. Not so much the number of Tests but the number of balls that this Indian batting line-up has made us bowl," Paine said, when asked about the fatigue factor.
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"They made us bowl 170 overs in Melbourne, 160-odd again in Sydney. That takes its toll.
"At the end of a long series, you can get some real rewards if you can make teams bowl lots and lots of overs.
"That's what you saw ... it's an extremely tough ask on fast bowlers and even Lyno (Nathan Lyon), to keep coming in and bowling and bowling and bowling when you're not getting a hell of a lot of reward."
Paine admitted his team attempted to do the same to India throughout the series but failed.
"We spoke about that right back in Adelaide, that's something we wanted to do to their attack," he said.
"We haven't quite been able to do it and they've done it to ours."
A TALE OF TWO WORKLOADS THIS SERIES
AUSTRALIA
1) Nathan Lyon (242.1 overs) 2) Josh Hazlewood (152.1 overs) 3) Pat Cummins (145 overs) 4) Mitchell Starc (138.5 overs) 5) Mitch Marsh (26 overs - not playing in Sydney) 6) Marnus Labuschagne (16 overs)
INDIA 1) Jasprit Bumrah (137.1 overs) 2) Mohammed Shami (118.4 overs) 3) Ishant Sharma (103 overs - not playing in Sydney) 4) Ravichandran Ashwin (86.5 overs - not playing in Sydney) 5) Ravindra Jadeja (59 overs) 6) Umesh Yadav (37 overs - not playing in Sydney).
