NEW DELHI: Sunil Gavaskar described India's capitulation against England as traumatic, embarrassing and jelly-like, while Sourav Ganguly called for "harsh decisions" to be made on team selections.
The former India captains were just two of the many harsh critics of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's test team after it was bundled out for 94 in the second innings at The Oval, losing the test by an innings and 244 runs and surrendering the five-match series 3-1.
Players, analysts and the public questioned the team's resolve after it lost consecutive tests inside three days.
India led the series after winning the second test at Lord's, but lost the third test by 266 runs and the fourth by an innings and 54 runs.
"If we do well in the ODIs, the test series will be forgotten and that will be a tragedy," Gavaskar told the NDTV news channel.
"The tragedy of Indian cricket is that a lot of the defeats are swept under the carpet."
World Cup-winning captain Dhoni's record crept up to 14 away test defeats. Batsmen Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara failed time and again.
Ganguly urged selectors to take some tough decisions, saying the team had shown "no effort, no heart, no fight."
"There have to be some harsh decisions," Ganguly told the Headlines Today news channel.
"The selectors' outlook has to change — when you pick your players, when you identify talent, these are the things you have to look for: who gets runs for you in difficult circumstances, who gets runs for you when the chips are down, who gets runs for you when you are 50-5."
Former chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth wondered what India coach Duncan Fletcher had been doing.
"Some of the strategies adopted, field placements and even the batting order for instance could have been handled better," Srikkanth wrote in a column in The Times of India.
"The coach definitely has a say in all these. Either he is not ready to question the authority of Dhoni, else he wants to collect his pay check till the World Cup before waving goodbye."
Indian newspapers ran banner headlines and television channels ran programs dissecting the defeat.
"Team India uprooted" read the headline in The Times of India, which went on to give statistical details of India's third biggest innings defeat as well as dwelled on Dhoni's poor captaincy, lack of batsmen's technique and shoddy slip catching among other things.
"Nightmare ends with a horror show" screamed the Hindustan Times headline.
Social media, too, was abuzz with comments and tongue-in-cheek remarks as the Indian innings lasted just 29.2 overs on Sunday.
"There you are," noted international commentator Harsha Bhogle posted on his twitter page after England completed a third consecutive test series win over India in quick time.
"Our post game show was as long as the Indian innings."
England beat India 4-0 at home in 2011 and then came from behind to prevail 2-1 in a four-test test series in India the following year.
Criticism for India's capitulation in England
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