India's stand-in captain Rahul Dravid said his team had the correct attitude but could not execute the game plan, which led to the first series defeat in 35 years at home against Australia.

"It is probably disappointing with the way we batted but all the guys fought hard and showed the right attitude. Unfortunately we could not execute our skills and plans," Dravid said after the 342-run loss in the third Test at the VCA ground in Nagpur.

Chasing a target of 543, India meekly surrendered to be all out for 200 in the second innings on the penultimate day.

Once again, as in the first Test in Bangalore, the lower order outscored the top five batsmen who between them managed only 37 runs.

"It was a hard game and we were outplayed by the Aussies," Dravid said.

"The conditions here suited them. But probably they adapted to the conditions better.

"They have a good team, they have been coming here quite often and that helped them. We obviously need to get better, improve individually," he added.

Dravid said he was disappointed with the fact that his team did not show enough fight and there were very few positives from the match.

"We should have fought better. They put us under relentless pressure. The positives were very few, the bowling of Zaheer Khan and Murali Kartik and the couple of fifties scored by some batsmen. That's all," he admitted.

Dravid was gracious in defeat, he praised Jason Gillespie's bowling, which saw him claim nine wickets in the Test.

"He bowled extremely well and hit the deck hard. He's a quality bowler. All their bowlers were good on a wicket that suited them," he said, adding the Australian batsmen were also better prepared this time around for the series in India.

"They are playing a lot of one-day cricket in our conditions and this has helped them prepare themselves better. They also come and train at the MRF academy (in Chennai). We need to learn from the way they have prepared," he said.