We came into this game excited about winning: Root

"In terms of our squad, the character is something that I never question." © AFP

England captain Joe Root said he was proud of the way his team had played during a much-improved display at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test but also disappointed that England were not able to force a victory on the final day.

After chastening defeats in the first three Tests of the series, losing the Ashes before Christmas and with a third whitewash down under in ten years on the cards, England played excellently in Melbourne and had much the better of the match even if Australia batted out the final day to secure a draw on a turgid and lifeless pitch. Although the home team were without Mitchell Starc and conditions suited England more, this was still a decent effort from the tourists.

"To come off three very difficult games, to put in a performance like that was very pleasing," Root told reporters after play on Saturday (December 30). "That's what we are about as a side. That's a fair reflection of what we are capable of. [I'm] disappointed that we couldn't quite crack it open today but we tried absolutely everything and the effort from all the guys was there all day."

Root singled out the performance of England's bowlers on the opening two days, bowling Australia out for 327, as "outstanding" and said that Alastair Cook's double hundred, returning the opener to form after a difficult three Tests, was "exactly what you're after" from senior players. Although England tried manfully on the final day to take the eight wickets they needed for victory, the slow, docile pitch - a shocker, really - scuppered any chances of that.

This tour has at least avoided the fate of two of the last three trips to Australia which ended in 5-0 defeats for England. The last series down under in 2013-14 ended with acrimony and recrimination and brought about the end of a number of careers including those of Graeme Swann and Kevin Pietersen. There is no indication that the same fate is befalling this squad and an improved showing in this match suggests England remain fully committed to the cause.

"In terms of our squad, the character is something that I never question," added Root. "The way we apply ourselves is always there. After three tough games, to come back and put in a performance as good as that was extremely pleasing for me as the captain. They're the sort of responses you want to see from your players. We are a better team than what we have played on this trip. That's a benchmark now for us.

"The way we've been preparing has been exceptional the whole trip. The application, they way we go about it in practice, the energy guys put in, you can see the desire that's there. That's never been questioned the whole time.

"Of course we didn't want it to be a whitewash but we came into this game excited about winning, making sure the main focus of the group was to win this game and then go to Sydney and win there. It wasn't hard to get the guys in the right frame of mind for that. They had a lot of disappointment coming away from Perth and you could see in the way they went about training that they wanted to prove people wrong."

The teams now head to Sydney for the final Test beginning on Thursday (January 4) and England will feel in better spirits particularly the likes of Cook and Stuart Broad who returned to form at the MCG. One player who still looks horribly out of nick, though, is Moeen Ali and although Root would not be drawn on whether he would play at the SCG, such is the off-spinner's lack of form that it is highly likely that his position will be reviewed.

"Moeen is a fine player," said Root. "He's obviously had a tough tour until now but he's going to do some great things for England in the future. He has done in the past. We've seen a number of guys respond well to a difficult few weeks on this tour already and there's no reason why Moeen can't come back from that."

For now, Root is content to head to Sydney on the back of a draw rather than a defeat although he knows that the challenge for his side does not get any easier. "Of course, this will give guys a lot of confidence knowing we can make big scores and we can bowl Australia out on a very unresponsive wicket," he said. "It will be very different [in Sydney]. It will be a very different surface and we need to make sure we adapt to that."