"RIP. World's No.1 test team" screamed the Times of India's front page headline on Sunday as former players joined angry media in blaming selectors for India's limp series loss to England. "India gift crown on a platter," the sports page of the same newspaper lamented after Saturday's innings and 242 runs loss in the third test meant a first series defeat as captain for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The newspaper also gave a graphic detail of how India were "shamed and dethroned" while the Hindustan Times headline said the team, idolised by the majority of India's 1.2 billion cricket-obsessed population, had gone "from kings to commoners."
India arrived in England as the number one test team in the world, fresh from their 50-over World Cup victory on home turf, but the morale-sapping losses in the first three matches of the four-test series handed England the top spot.
The tourists have been found wanting in all departments of the game - their batsmen have failed to post big totals, the bowlers have been wayward and the fielders have floored opportunities that have come their way.
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell blamed the selectors for the disastrous performance of the Indian cricketers. "The selectors' failure to address issues like an aging batting line-up, a declining off-spinner and substandard fielding in the five-day game, has finally come home to roost," he said in a column published in the Hindustan Times.
Former India all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath said it was time for some serious soul-searching for the selectors.
Anil Kumble, the former India leg-spinner and the country's highest wicket-taker in both tests and one-day internationals, said it was time for Indian cricket to invest in the future.
"You need to ensure who's the next four or five batsmen that you are going to invest in and then those batsmen will have to be given the long rope," former India captain Kumble told the CNN-IBN channel.
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