Ever since India suffered a humiliating ODI series whitewash, most of us are finding it hard to wrap our head around the fact that the team, which was described by many as the favourites, could not even present any challenge (barring the third ODI) to a relatively inexperienced South Africa squad. 

What’s more astonishing is the fact that not many people are talking about the team’s horrendous performance, despite being deeply hurt by the result.

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It’s not very often that we see an Indian outfit getting completely outplayed in a bi-lateral limited-overs series. We are not habitual of getting beaten so comprehensively no matter which format we play. 

Obviously, it has happened in one game but the same thing to continue throughout the series is very rare. What’s more rare is that we are not a side that suffers a series clean sweep. 

To put into context, since the inception of ODI cricket, we have suffered only five whitewashes.

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People might not be reacting too much but deep down we all know they are disappointed.  

The reason why we can say that with utmost surety is because of the passion with which the Indian audience follows the game. But still, for some reason, people don’t seem to be that bothered about this humiliating loss.

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Most of us deep down know that had these set of players performed in the same manner during Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli’s tenure, all hell would have broken loose, with fans and experts criticising them left, right and centre.

There would have been tons of posts on social media where everybody would have blamed the captain-coach duo for the team’s miserable performance and would have raised questions on their leadership qualities. 

Some would have even demanded their resignations.

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Not just that, by now both of them would have faced personal attacks on the internet.  

People would have flooded the social networking sites with hundreds of memes making fun of Shastri’s drinking habits, while Kohli would have been subjected to all sorts of online hatred.

It’s not a mere assumption, we have seen both of them getting treated like this online on many occasions in the past.

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Don’t get me wrong, I am against all kinds of trolling. My intention is not to encourage people to go and target Dravid and stand-in skipper, KL Rahul, for the side’s disappointing series loss and troll them.

All I am trying to understand is why people aren’t that concerned about these losses or if they are, why aren’t they talking about it.

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It’s not only me, there are several people on the internet who are finding it hard to digest this silence. They also want to know why more people aren’t holding this team accountable for their poor performance and aren’t asking them enough questions. 

Dravid’s been handed a reputation risk. Unless he’s sure he has the freedom, and selections he needs, he should cut his losses & let Ganguly deal with the wreck. A Rahul Dravid should never be a mere pawn in other people’s power games.

— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) January 23, 2022

agree Till now Dravid has been poor. There has been some favouritism too

— Cricdeep (@cricdeeps) January 19, 2022

Not blaming dravid but Shastri coach hota to overconfident vale bhut sare articles aate
Will that come for dravid https://t.co/HCOVKOvvdH

— . (@finehaihum) January 23, 2022

People would have trolled Ravi Shastri if he was the coach now...Why aren't people trolling Rahul dravid?

Human psychology: Easy to troll the backbencher, not the front bench student/good body.

— Avs Sridhar (@AvsSridhar2) January 23, 2022

If it was shastri all the bewda memes would have been floating till now, as simple as that Dravid isn't a coach material to International team

— Yashasvi (@girlwithwingss) January 21, 2022

If an Indian team under Ravi Shastri had Ravi Ashwin batting at #7, all hell would've broken loose on this platform. I expect the same treatment to be given to Dravid today.

— Aaditya Narayan (@AadityaN_28) January 19, 2022

agree Till now Dravid has been poor. There has been some favouritism too

— Cricdeep (@cricdeeps) January 19, 2022

One possible reason why people are not being too critical of this side’s performance could be that KL Rahul was leading the ODI side for the first time while Dravid took charge in November last year and both were pretty new to their jobs.

First of all, Dravid is not new to the coaching role. He has been working in a, more or less, similar role for the last three years. As far as the Indian team is concerned, he has already spent nearly three months with the players.

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Some fans believe that the reason why no one is criticising Dravid is because he has this ‘good boy’ image in Indian cricket and that’s why people are afraid of saying anything against him.

But unlike Dravid, both Kohli and Shastri were known for being the ‘spoilt brats’ hence people didn’t twice before coming hard at them.

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It’s a long enough time to get a clear idea of how to manage various things inside the dressing room and how to come up with different game plans to give the side an advantage over the opposition.

But given how India performed, one could tell neither Dravid nor KL Rahul had any idea of what the team’s game plan was and what template they needed to follow. Had there been any other captain-coach pair, they would have been ripped to shreds by now.

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