Virat Kohli said Australia were deserving of their second-Test win after India were beaten by 146 runs in Perth on Tuesday.

India were bowled out for 140 on the fifth and final day in Perth as Australia levelled the four-match series at 1-1 heading into Melbourne's Boxing Day Test.

Kohli's side had the chance to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy with victory at Perth Stadium but the tourists were no match for Australia, who wrapped up proceedings by claiming 28-5 after just an hour of play.

India captain Kohli was lively throughout the match, involved in a fierce battle with Australia skipper Tim Paine, who had the last laugh.

"As a team I think we played well in patches which we can hold onto," Kohli said during the post-match presentation as he reflected on the result.

"Australia played much better than us with the bat. [Scoring] 330 on that pitch we felt was a bit too much. They deserved to win. We had the belief we could do it, but they were more relentless and put us in trouble.

"[Our bowlers] are outstanding as a pack, to see them dominate was really good to see and something we want to build on. They are relentless even if they aren't getting wickets which is a great quality."

India opted not to include a spinner for the second Test after Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out due to injury, while Australia star and man-of-the-match Nathan Lyon (5-67 and 3-39) finished with eight wickets.

"When we looked at the pitch we didn't think about [Ravindra Jadeja] but I thought Nathan bowled really well," Kohli said.  "We never thought we wanted to consider a spinner, we thought four fast bowlers would be enough."

Kohli, who scored 123 runs in the first innings, added: "When you don't win you don't really rank your performances so it's irrelevant because we didn't get the result we wanted. I'm just focused on the next Test."