What has never happened in the history of Indian cricket happened last evening: India got whitewashed in a three-match test series at home. It was an epochal moment that no one saw coming, surely not against a team like New Zealand, who had never won a Test in India since 1988, let alone a series. A team that came off on the back of a 0-2 disaster in Sri Lanka. A team whose main spinner has played six matches in the last three years. New Zealand was supposed to be no match to this Indian team, which has not lost a series at home in the last twelve years. But they comprehensively outclassed the hosts throughout a three-match series to pull off a blinder. 

Of course, the devastation of such epic proportions would arouse some amusing reactions. From devout fans to former cricketers, nobody was pleased with what they had seen, and they unleashed fury on the team, pointing out the lacunae that needed to be fixed. Here are the biggest reactions to note:  

The axes were out for the Indian captain, Rohit Sharma, who now has a dubious reputation of breaking winning streaks that have lasted over a decade. Rohit was often lackadaisical with his field placement, and his returns with the bat were abysmal. He failed to compile 100 runs across six innings, and looked vulnerable against spin, like the rest of the batting order. 

Mitchell Santner wreaked havoc in Pune while Ajaz Patel had his chance in Mumbai. Against them, the Indian batters looked clueless, failing to read the variation, and making avoidable errors.  

Reactions from the Cricketing world: 

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag lamented the technique of Indian batters, singling out the propensity to experiment rather than play a patience game, as the format demands. "While as supporters it's imperative to support the team, this has been a terrible performance from our team. The skill to play spin certainly needs an upgrade and certain experimentations are good for the shorter format but in Test cricket doing some needless experimentations just for the sake of it was indeed poor," Sehwag wrote on Instagram. 

Harbhajan Singh, the legendary spinner, criticised the pitch for offering too much turn from Day 1 itself, which made it close to impossible for any batter to survive for a long stretch. "Turning pitches becoming our own enemy. Congratulations NZ you outplayed us. Been saying this for many years. Team India needs to play on better pitches. These turning pitches making every batsman look very ordinary," tweeted Harbhajan. 

Yuvraj Singh tweeted about the unpredictability of the sport, highlighting how a team that became the T20 world champions just a few months ago, fell to such a chaotic descent in Tests. He also warned the team management to introspect on the result and fix the holes before the tour to Australia. "Cricket truly is a humbling sport, isn't it? Just months after our T20 World Cup win, we face a historic whitewash. That's the beauty of this game! Bigger tests lie ahead with the Australia series & the way forward is to introspect, learn and look up! Congratulations to the Black Caps on a well-rounded performance and a historic win," said Yuvraj. 

Why Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma Don't Play Domestic Cricket? 

After a shambolic batting return from two of the senior-most players, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, many experts bemoaned their attitude of not taking domestic cricket seriously. Previously, even the senior players would play domestic season if they were available. But the likes of Rohit and Virat rarely turn up for domestic Tests. Irrfan Pathan, the former Indian pacer, raised this issue in a tweet, also mentioning how pitches in domestic cricket are either placid or grassy. 

Pathan tweeted, "Had a solid conversation with @iamyusufpathan bhai yesterday. He made a valid point about domestic cricket – we're either playing on grassy pitches or flat tracks, but rarely on turning surfaces anymore. Plus, top players aren't playing domestic cricket. This could hurt us in the long run."