Twelve months ago, Michael Clarke was struggling for runs and battling an image problem with an indifferent Australian public, while his team was belted 3-1 by England in the Ashes.

Now, after leading his country to a powerful 4-0 series sweep of India, the Australia captain is back on the path to glory.

Clarke said the lessons learned from last summer's disaster played a crucial part in his side's 2011/12 rebirth, which was emphatically sealed with a 298-run thumping of India at Adelaide Oval earlier today.

"I think it (last summer's Ashes defeat) has played a part," Clarke said.

"It certainly has for me personally. I think individual players who were a part of last summer remember it."

"We said and knew we had to do a lot of work to improve our games, both personally and as a team."

"It's obviously a very special feeling to sit here beating India 4-0, knowing that last summer I couldn't buy a run. It's a great feeling."

"I hate to say it but throughout your career you need to go through the tough times individually and as a team to realise how hard Test cricket is and how special it is when you have days like today and a series like this."

As well as the series loss to the Old Enemy last season, the Australians were equally mindful of another couple of recent Test losses as they endeavoured to ruthlessly deny India so much as a sniff.

Last November in Cape Town, Australia were skittled for 47 and lost to South Africa by eight wickets, after Clarke's side held a 188-run first innings lead.

A month later in Hobart, a 7-40 collapse saw the Aussies lose to New Zealand by seven runs, after rolling the Black Caps for just 150 on the opening day.

"The loss in South Africa and the loss against New Zealand is something that every player in that changeroom has had in the front of their mind," said Clarke, who was adjudged Player of the Series after plundering 626 runs at an average of 125.20 with a strike rate of 69.86.

"That's probably been a bit of an inspiration to make sure when we feel like things are going well, to keep pushing forward; to make the most of the momentum that we've been able to have."

"Consistency is an area we've had to work on as a team."

"To be able to keep backing up throughout this series and win all four Test matches shows we're improving in that area."

While Clarke believes that while his side's demolition of India will be noticed by the cricketing world, the Australian team is still far from where he wants it to be.

"Are we the leader of the pack? No, I don't think we are," Clarke said.

"We sit third or fourth on the ICC rankings. Right now we're not the number one Test team in the world so it's about us trying to become better every single match."

"I think we're playing really well as a group, but we have a lot of work still to do to achieve what we want to achieve."

"We've got a hell of a lot of work to do to get back to where I see this team going and would love to see this team going."