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Kohli talks about how newcomers are integrated smoothly and perform from the start. Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant and Bumrah had played 17 Tests between them before this one, but all contributed.

India made three changes for this match, including the replacement of both openers. Far from missing a beat, they added one. Vihari's scores may appear insubstantial, Kohli said, but he and Agarwal set the course for India's first objective on day one: 400, "however much time it took".

This, Australian captain Tim Paine acknowledged, put the match out of Australia's reach. He could foresee what others did not - that a pitch so universally condemned on days one and two would come into its own. It was the comeback of the season.

All of these Kohli reflections bore the hallmarks of the self-propagating confidence and corporate zeal that is evident in most happily winning sports teams. You will have heard much the same from Australia once. No team led by Kohli and spearheaded by Bumrah could be called cookie cutter, but none the less, they are onto a good thing.

Arching over all, Kohli talks about his team's mission to win outside India. Already, he is the first Indian captain to win Tests in England, South Africa and Australia - all this calendar year - but the England and South Africa series got away. Now an unprecedented series win in Australia is in his grasp. "If you want to win a series away from home, it has to be an obsession," he said. It is for him.

In this, he echoes Steve Waugh, captain of Australia's most dominant team, whose last frontier was India. For all of Australia's mastery in his time, Waugh never did manage to win a series there.

This Australian team's peculiar unhappiness is the ghostly absence of their two best batsmen. It can improve no-one's humour to remember that it is usually the bowling line-up that struggles to stay intact. Now the bowlers are standing up in unison, but the batting is a patchwork.

Each day, the pity grows stronger that India's all-time best seam attack did not get to match wits with Australia's best contemporary batsmen in Australian conditions. That is not to grieve for what Australia has lost, but the game of Test cricket.

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Until now, Paine has steered around the subject adroitly, but on Sunday was weary and blunt. Take Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara out of the Indian team and see how they fare, he said. "It's pretty clear that if you take the best two or three batsmen out, the batting is going to be inconsistent," he said.

Only Travis Head is averaging more than 30 in this series. Kohli admitted that India focused on this. It was why his team was so intent on making 400 first innings runs, even if they had to do it in the manner of pulling teeth. It proved astute.

Really, all this series has done is to affirm the status quo. India are at or never far from the No.1 Test ranking. There is an asterisk against it for its overseas record, but that asterisk is against every country. Australia is No.5.

If you care to look, Australia have been lonely in their unhappiness for some time. Since 2009, they have only twice touched No.1, briefly each time, statistical blips. Ascendancy at home, especially in the Ashes, has masked this. In sandpapergate, Australia tumbled precipitously from the high moral ground, but only a little down the points table. It had less distance to fall.

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Australia will hurt no less in this defeat by the fact that they must have seen it coming. In terms of the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the fourth Test is now dead. Setting it aside, India's incentive to make history may outweigh Australia's need to salvage pride.

Beyond lie two Tests against a poor Sri Lankan team that recently was swept at home by England and on Sunday lost to New Zealand by 423 runs. Recent crowd history suggests that late nights at the Gabba may indeed prove to be a friendless place for humble Australia.

There is one distant light. Australia's downward cycle was accelerated uniquely by the suspensions of Steve Smith and David Warner. It won't - or ought not - recur. Once they return, the upswing can begin. For every fan who abhors their return, there will be two or more who cannot wait. Paine is one.

Meantime, there was a faint echo in Kohli's concluding remarks to a satisfying week. "That's why you play cricket," he said. "You don't play just to play well; you play to win." But not, presumably, without counting the cost.

Winners are forever grinners. "Happy New Year," Kohli bade the mostly Australian media conference as he left. It could hardly be less happy than this one.