'India cannot hide under the garb of transition'

India have suddenly slipped into a period of steep decline in home Tests. Two series whitewashes in just over twelve months, first against New Zealand and now South Africa, have punctured the aura they once carried at home.

India's latest setback has triggered strong reactions across the cricketing fraternity.

"We cannot hide under the garb of transition. Barring Sudarshan, Jurel and Reddy, most of the guys have been around for 7-8 years. Some very experienced campaigners. This is a series of tactical errors, obsession with playing all-rounders and not wanting to learn from mistakes. Embarrassing," said Venkatesh Prasad.

Former South Africa batter Herschelle Gibbs offered a much blunter suggestion, "Shorten IPL and play more test cricket."

"Teams used to be scared to come to India to play Test Cricket. Now they must be licking their lips. I mean, second whitewash in a span of 12 months. In the last three Test Series that have been played in India, two have been whitewashed. Those are tough times for India in Test Cricket, and some tough decisions might have to be taken," said a visibly upset Dinesh Karthik. "One too many all-rounders being played. Nitish Reddy, the nominated all-rounder, pace all-rounder, had bowled 14 overs across a whole domestic calendar season in Test Cricket," he added.

"Who is our No. 3? How much stability are we going to give him? Washington plays at No. 3 in Kolkata. Sai Sudarshan is playing at No. 3 in Guwahati. Is chopping and changing helping Team India or do we need to give more stability and consistency? What is the answer?" he further questioned.

Legendary India leg-spinner Anil Kumble shared a similar opinion and questioned India's constant shuffles. "Test match cricket requires a different mindset, you can't really have so many all rounders, so much chopping and changing, so many changes in the batting order, in the team itself. Every second game you have a new player coming in, couple of guys get dropped," he said. "I think India needs to sit down and think and ponder. You can't forget these results, you need to have a discussion around how you see Indian Test cricket go forward. Stalwarts have retired in the last 6-8 months and when that happens you need to have a vision and have a conversation as to what the team has to do," he added.

Mohammad Kaif called on India to rethink their approach in the longest format at home. "Utterly disappointed to see second whitewash at home. No stability, no vision, no plan. Too much chopping and changing. We play on green track in domestic but have turners for Tests. Few batsmen with Test temperament. India needs to rethink their Test strategy at home," he opined.

Michael Vaughan echoed the sentiments of several India fans when he said, "The most under achieving Test team by a country mile at the moment is India."

Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired just last year, offered a slightly differing viewpoint and defended head coach Gambhir while stating that the players had underperformed. "I haven't seen enough responsibility taken by enough players to say the coach is the problem. It's a valid point… I didn't see enough from the players' side to blame decision-making alone. Sure, decision-making can always be better, no doubt. But I personally don't like this individual attack, because we always look for someone to blame," he said.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly remained hopeful of a team in transition getting better. "SA [South Africa] were special..young indian team on transition..they will get better," he said.