India captain Rohit Sharma believes India needed to be more ruthless in key moments after they were beaten by Australia at the MCG.

Rohit Sharma rued India's inability to seize crucial moments after they were beaten in the fourth Test by Australia.

The tourists were unable to save the game on day five as they lost seven wickets for just 34 runs in the final session, meaning they must win the final match in Sydney to avoid a series defeat.

Rohit's side had Australia 90-6 in the second innings and looked on course to be chasing something manageable before the hosts rallied to score 234, setting a total of 340, and realistically removing any chance of an away victory.

India's captain reflected on that being among several missed opportunities to turn the Test in their favour.

Rohit said: "It is pretty disappointing. It's not that we went in with the intent of giving up the fight. We wanted to fight until the end and unfortunately we couldn't do it.

"If you look at the overall Test match, we had our chances but we didn't take them. We had Australia 90-6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. I don't want to look at one situation.

"We knew 340 wasn't going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well.

"We wanted to go for the target, but we didn't set the platform from our side. There are ways to win games and we fell short."