Srikkanth hails India win

India's chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth lauded his side’s 2-0 series victory over Australia, insisting: “We beat them fair and square”.

The hosts wrapped up a second win in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy by 172 runs in Nagpur, following up drawn matches in the first and third Tests and victory in Mohali.

"Australia is the number one team in the world and what I like about this victory is that India beat them fair and square," Srikkanth said.

"This is not a typical Indian turning wicket, but a pretty placid track which has been pretty good for batting.

"In Mohali it was a flat track too and we beat them comprehensively.

Sourav Ganguly salutes the Nagpur crowd following his last Test appearance today

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"Considering the circumstances and the condition of the wicket, I think we beat them very well."

There were calls for the selectors to drop senior players such as Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar from the team, but Srikkanth and the other selectors decided to keep faith with the ageing India stars.

Srikkanth, who saw captain Kumble retire after the third Test, with Ganguly following him after this match, said: "This is an absolute team effort. The batting has been fantastic, especially the starts from Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. And this match Murali Vijay gave us the right impetus.

"It has been the key to this series victory.

"If you look at the bowling analysis of the team as well, Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan have done extremely well on what essentially are placid tracks.

"Wickets in India are not conducive to fast bowling and there has been very little in it for the pacers.

"Yet, they have produced the breakthroughs at the right time and have provided Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra a fine platform to work from.

"The middle-order batted well with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni all consistently contributing runs.

"This has been a super team effort."

Dhoni took over as skipper from Kumble after the leg-spinner called time on his career at the end of the Delhi Test and Srikkanth believes he has the right man for the job.

Chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth was delighted with India's victory over Australia

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"Dhoni has his own style of captaincy and he has led very well.

“It’s three victories from three matches for him now," Srikkanth said.

"He has been a very able leader and has shown in this Test that he knows exactly when to attack and when to defend.

"The best quality about him is that he is able to get the best out of the younger players and gel the team together."

India are now second behind Australia in the ICC Test rankings and Srikkanth insists India are quickly closing the gap to the world champions.

"Apart from an all-round team effort, another positive that has come out of this series is that the youngsters have stood up and delivered," he said.

"We have been able to give players like Mishra and Vijay a chance to play and they have proved they are talented youngsters.

"They have tremendous potential and they have shown that there is plenty of talent in the country.

"So the transition from the seniors to the juniors has been very smooth.

"We would certainly love to be the number one team in the world.”