Only one major newspaper carried a substantial front-page story on Tuesday in response to the Indian test team's humbling 4-0 series whitewash, with most space taken up by news stories.
India's dismal test tour of England was completed on Monday when it crashed to an innings defeat in the final match at The Oval, and slipping from the world's No 1 test to third in the ICC rankings.
The Indian Express carried the headline "The agony ends, India lose series 0-4" on its front page as it, and other Indian newspapers set about the task of dissecting the reasons behind the poor performance just months of a limited-overs World Cup victory at home.
"Whitewashed" read the lead headline on The Indian Express's sports page with a match report titled "Swann applies finishing touch."
England offspinner Graeme Swann returned figures of 6-106 in India's second innings at The Oval, including the important wickets of man-of-the-series Rahul Dravid, opener Virender Sehwag and nightwatchman Amit Mishra.
The newspaper also criticized preparations for the series in an article titled "Undercooked bunch spoiled the broth" in which it highlighted the lack of first-class outings as well as injuries to prominent players Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and others in recent weeks.
The Times of India was scathing in its criticism, calling the debacle "a crying shame" and the "worst defeat since 1959," while The Hindu announced "The humiliation is complete."
"Finally, it's Oval and out" said the Hindustan Times, which dubbed the tour "an English bummer" and blamed the openers, spinners and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni among others for such a disappointing result.
In a separate article, the Hindustan Times also criticized the Board of Control for Cricket in India for lacking a professional approach and not showing vision in planning for important matches.
The newspapers did offer praise to veteran batsman Sachin Tendulkar (91) and Amit Mishra (84) for a 144-run fourth-wicket stand at The Oval, but made little mention of the fact that Tendulkar had missed out on a 100th international century.
Former captain and opening great Sunil Gavaskar, who called India's defeat an "abject surrender," said a hundred from Tendulkar in a losing cause would not have given much joy anyway.
"The hundredth hundred is going to come, but it has not come here because England is a much superior side," Gavaskar told the NDTV news channel. "They were superior not just technically but tactically too."
Former test batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said on his Twitter page: "this is one situation where it makes sense to press the panic button..."
India now plays England in a Twenty20 game on August 31, which will be followed by five one-day internationals.
