Australia outplayed India on Day 5 to win the World Test Championship final by 209 runs at the Oval on Sunday.
But Indian captain Rohit Sharma was ready with his excuses at the post-match press conference.
From lack of preparation, to having a best-of-three format for the WTC final, to change in venue, the Indian captain made some bold suggestions.
"I would prefer a best-of-three final for the World Test Championship as it would be ideal to compete over 3 Tests. After all the hard work, over 2 years in reaching the final you only have one shot at it.
"It would be ideal if there are 3 Tests in the next cycle. However, we need to find a window for that. June is not the only month to play the WTC final. It could be played anywhere in the world, not just in England," Rohit said.
"Ideally, yes, event like this, final like this, you need a lot of time to prepare yourself and that is what we did in the last time when we were here in England. We had good 25-30 days to prepare ourselves. And you saw the result. We were 2-1 up until that game got called off. We would want to have good time in hand to prepare, give enough rest to the bowlers.
"And then Test cricket obviously requires a lot of discipline, hitting that area consistently and challenging the batsmen -- but again you know Shami, Siraj, Umesh they all are experienced. But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would prefer if we have 20, 25 days to prepare for a game like this," Rohit added.
About Shubman Gill's controversial dismissal on Day 4, Rohit said, "We've 10 different angles in the IPL, I don't know why there wasn't any ultra motion or zoom in angle shown during Shubman Gill's dismissal".
This was India's second consecutive WTC final loss -- they went down against New Zealand in 2021 -- and when asked what went wrong for India in the Ultimate Test match, India captain Rohit said they failed to successfuly execute their plans.
"Having won the toss and put them in, I thought after the first session we had a good chance of getting them out quickly,” Rohit said after the match.
"But two of their batters Smith and Head particularly played well and we went slightly away from our (bowling) plans.
"We didn't execute what we should have on that pitch because there was a lot of assistance on the pitch and we failed to do that and that can happen.”
India's trophy drought since their last major success coming in England at the 2013 Champions Trophy when they defeated England in the final in Birmingham, is a cause of concern.
It's a drought that causes lots of anguish to the majority of the large population back in India and this fact is not lost on Rohit as he knows everyone is hurting.
"It is disappointing to not come out on top, given (we have had) a shot at a couple of finals now in World Test Championships,” Rohit said.
"You get dejected. There is no doubt about it and it does disappoint, not just me, but I'm sure everyone in the changing room is disappointed because you work really hard for it.
"To not see the result that you want to, it can be very disheartening and that is what everyone's feeling right now.
"But the sport is all about picking yourself up and getting ready for the next big event that you have."
Rohit said planning for the future is always at the back of his mind and he will be searching hard to find the right mix of players that will help India to that elusive World Test Championship title.
"Any tournament you play, you start looking at what possibly you can do moving ahead," Rohit said.
"There will be some talks around it and we'll see whatever is required and whatever is best, whatever the brand of cricket we want to play in the next two years. And who are the guys who can do that role for us? That is the question that we need to find answers for.
"There are a lot of guys, there are a lot of players who are doing really well in our domestic cricket as well.
"It's just about finding them and giving them that space, enough time to go forward and do the job for us."
