'We need to give ourselves a pat on the back'

How satisfied were you with the way the team performed overall?
I was incredibly proud of the performance of the boys. We put them through some tough preparation and some tough practice and they've just embraced everything so well. It has been amazing to see how they've embraced it. We had some pretty decent plans for the Indian players, but the boys executed them so well. All accolades must go to the players, they were outstanding, and it shows to me how exciting Australian cricket is at the moment. It doesn't matter whether you're Michael Clarke, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey or David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Starc, the appetite to keep raising the bar and keep improving is amazing, and if we can continue doing that with our Test team, we're going to be in very good shape.

That was one thing we kept on stressing - you want to win the first hour, the first session, the first day, which puts India under pressure. Our guys did that. What impressed me was when the game was on the line and there was a 50/50 call either way, our guys jumped in and took it - that's a hallmark of a good side. In a good side when the moment presents itself the team takes it, and I think we did that a lot of the time, and then we were able to do it for longer than India and keep them under more and more pressure. We spoke about it beforehand, but the execution was fantastic.

It was a massive moment, and from that time we were able to exert pressure on them. We knew we had to be really patient, we knew that we had to keep them under pressure because playing away from home it is always tough when you're under pressure, and luckily we were able to do that.

It was pretty simple - patience, pressure and partnerships. Those three words continually get thrown out in cricket, but they're three words that are so important. I always said to the guys if you're patient enough, you create the pressure, and pressure equals wickets, and that was almost our mantra. We had batting partnerships as a big focus, instead of individual scores and individual focus, our batting partnerships were a big focus for us and as you see the partnerships of Ponting and Clarke, and Hussey and Clarke in Sydney, then Clarke and Ponting in Adelaide again, and even Warner and Cowan in Perth, were instrumental. It wasn't so much about the individual scores, it was a lot about the partnerships, because they were what were getting us into good positions. It was also the ability of the bowlers to do that as well, so you had Siddle and Harris bowling in partnerships, or James Pattinson and Peter earlier in the series, because those partnerships were the ones that generated everything for us and gave us the upper hand.

It definitely was [a different challenge for them in Australia], we spoke about that and it has been well documented. We wanted to drag them forward because the moment you drag them forward you create those opportunities. It's easier off the back foot, and by drawing them forward and using that fuller length, it creates a lot more opportunities, and again the guys did it fantastically, they bought into what we wanted to do and did it.

It is an area we have to look at. I'm really excited by the Warner/Cowan combination, I think it can be a really good one because they are the odd couple, and people bowl differently at them, so that's something we can work on, I'm quite comfortable there. Shaun didn't get the runs we would have liked for him at three so that's a potential area we need to look at, but I'm very confident that SOS (Marsh) down the line will play a major role there. You've also got a guy like Shane Watson coming back, so we've got plenty of talent available.

It becomes all about belief, belief in your ability, and that's something Shaun will get back. I kept saying to him during the series that form is temporary but class is permanent, and he's definitely a guy with a hell of a lot of class. So I'm certain he'll get back to where we need him in the future sometime - he's a good enough player. We'll get him right.

Nathan's going to get better and better, he's got all the hallmarks of a really good finger spinner. The fact was this series he wasn't needed that much and when we called on him he tended to do a job for us. I've got no question marks there, I think he's going to be very, very good.

Behind the stumps, the leadership he gives us is insurmountable and you can't put a price on that. I'm comfortable with where Brad's at, yes we'd like more runs from him, but I'm really comfortable that Brad is on the right track. Yes we've got to get performance and nobody is guaranteed their position, but I'm very comfortable that Brad Haddin could potentially go forward to the Ashes series [in 2013]. Brad, Ricky and Michael are adding a massive amount, a massive amount.

I'm not sure what the issues are that [India] have among themselves, but what I do know is that our guys played exceptionally good cricket, and sometimes your opponent is only allowed to play as well as you let them. There has been a focus on India not performing, but we need to have a look at ourselves and say 'maybe we did play some good cricket'. We need to give ourselves a pat on the back. We know it is just the start of this journey though, we're nowhere near the finished article as a Test team, there's a lot of room for improvement, a lot of things we can do better, and it is the start of what could be a very exciting journey. West Indies presents challenge, then we get back and we've got South Africa back here, Sri Lanka, then a four-Test series with India before we go to England, so there's a massive amount of work still to do.