"It is always harder to play away from home but England have to lose their short-sighted vision of playing on green wickets in this country," writes Michael Vaughan in the Daily Telegraph.

I have been saying this for ages. It is not that we have a group of players who are not good enough. This is the best generation we have had in terms of skill, coaching and preparation. They have got everything and as much as they deserve a huge amount of credit for the way they have played for the last two years in Test cricket, they have to be honest and accept they have got things wrong in one-day cricket.

Strategy in one-day cricket is shaped by the World Cup cycle. The next tournament, in 2015, will be in Australia where the pitches are flat and the ball doesn’t swing. You need power to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps, play spin and have the ability to post scores of 300. There will not be any green pitches and it will be boiling hot as well.

A cricket year that began in triumph at the Sydney Cricket Ground has ended in humiliating tatters at Eden Gardens as an exuberant young India side deservedly completed their clean sweep, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

England have been outplayed over five matches, not just with bat and ball but in the field and between the wickets, taken on at their own game. To collapse as they did on Tuesday evening was bordering on the surreal, perhaps a culmination of what had preceded in Hyderabad and Delhi, Mohali and Mumbai. England were culpable but, as Andy Flower pointed out, we should not, for all that, forget the many good things achieved by the team in all formats of the game over the past two years. "We have underachieved hugely," he said, "but please don't just judge them on this one series." Sometimes the immediacy of the moment leads to short memories.

England head into the final one-day international against India in Kolkata desperate to avoid an embarrassing 5-0 whitewash. In the Daily Mail, Lawrence Booth examines five areas that have let them down so far.

During India’s disastrous tour of England in the summer, their ragged fielding was a barometer of their general state of mind. Nasser Hussain even sparked some over-the-top outrage by branding one or two of their fielders ‘donkeys’.

But, by backing a young side, India have turned things round: Suresh Raina, Kohli and Jadeja have all been electric. England have just been shoddy. And that has had other repercussions: when Bresnan dived over the ball in Mohali, Dernbach blew a gasket, prompting Dhoni to point out the benefits of being nice to each other.

For four matches now England have been outplayed by a distance in all departments and now, in Eden Gardens, there looms a second successive whitewash for them in India," writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian. "Pride, and the slender possibility that they may avoid derision in these parts, is all that remains for which to play."

For Alastair Cook this is proving a tough introduction to leading a side against top-class opposition in conditions alien to his team. He is trying hard, improving as he goes along. He has attacked as well as he can with the resource he has. It is an unfortunate consequence of captaincy, however, that the responsibility for the team performance can impact on the individual's game to its detriment. One hopes this is not the case with Cook but his scores are reflective of the team's fortunes, with a run-a-ball 60 in the first match in Hyderabad, before it became evident that this young Indian side, at home, was a world away from the one encountered in the summer, dwindling to subsequent scores of nought, three and 10.

Alastair Cook's first tour as one-day captain has been a heated one, in which his players have sometimes expressed frustration with each other as well as the opposition. But the Independent's Stephen Brenkley says Cook has the character to deal with a tough series and the experience will in fact help him grow as a captain.

Being the man he is, Cook will turn this to advantage. The way he has learned the craft of batting is perfectly indicative. By adapting and adjusting, he has found a way of rectifying limitations when the gifts he has been handed might seem to preclude a way being found. He is a stubbornly determined beggar. The refurbishments as a Test batsman and reconstructions as one-day player have not been pretty but they have been effective, illustrating an admirable strength.

England have had two big ODI wins against India at the Wankhede Stadium - the 1987 World Cup semi-final and a series-levelling win in 2002 when Andrew Flintoff famously took his shirt off in celebration. The Hindustan Times talks to Kiran More, who played in the 1987 game, and Hemang Badani and Ajit Agarkar, who took part in 2002, about the matches.

"It was frustrating and disappointing that we couldn't finish the game but it really angered me that Flintoff took his t-shirt off and burst into wild celebrations. It was nice to see that Sourav gave it back to them very soon after that. I was glad to see that Sourav took it emotionally and let his feelings flow when the team came from behind to register a famous victory at Lord's ...," says Badani.

With Zaheer Khan injured, and Ishant Sharma just recovering from injury, Praveen Kumar is India's No. 1 seamer at the moment. But can someone who is no more than medium-pace lead a pace attack? Karthik Krishnaswamy poses the question in the Indian Express.

But the real question, as far as Tests are concerned, is whether a swing bowler of Praveen’s ilk, who only occasionally grazes the 132 mark, never mind the 140s, can bowl as part of a two man seam attack in India or prosper on hard Australian wickets? These are questions hanging in the air ahead of the home Tests against the West Indies and the trip Down Under immediately after that.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey says the ongoing ODI series between India and England has been a fractious one. England's frustration, he says, appears to be aimed more at themselves than their opponents.

Worryingly, however – on England's part anyway – it appears to be a reflection on the sort of behaviour that is now standard in the domestic game on which the England team, most of them, cut their cricket teeth and which one very senior umpire described last summer as a disgrace. County captains and coaches have something to answer in that regard, while match referees need determination and strong backing if they are to police it properly.

While India's one-day series victory over England with a young side may not offer a foolproof guide to prospects in longer formats, the mood of the matches and the buoyancy of the Indians bode well, says Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

Responsibility can make or break a sportsman. By the look of things, Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli are ready to meet the challenge. Rahane averages 69 in first class cricket, an exceptional return indicating he is a run-maker not a mere flash in the pan. Kohli has been around so long it's easy to forget he is only 22, and can be forgiven the errors of youth. Anyhow youngsters need a bit of pickle in them.

Tim Bresnan tells the Telegraph's Jonathan Liew that the England bowlers are trying to intimidate the India batsmen with words and stares since it is difficult to do it with the ball on Indian pitches. Off the pitch, however, he says the England team have received excellent treatment and have even had their meals paid for, meaning they don't have to decide who's paying through a game of credit card roulette.

"We've not really had much opportunity to get out," Bresnan says. "There's been a few beers in the hotel bar, but only to celebrate hundreds and five-fors in the warm-up games. There haven't been many nights out at all." Of course, nobody is suggesting that England are 2-0 down in the series because they have been unable to find somewhere in Mohali that serves Jaegerbombs. But at the moment, they are a small team in a very big country, and performing accordingly.

Vic Marks, writing in the Guardian, questions how Alastair Cook's side could deflate so quickly after their undefeated summer against India, and looks at technical handicaps that seem to be plaguing the visitors.

England, so sensationally competent throughout the summer of 2012, are suddenly devoid of savvy, and surly to boot. Any good side can lose two consecutive ODIs, but to be beaten so emphatically is alarming. Associate countries lose by these sorts of massive margins.

The Indian batsmen can clear the boundary all right, but on low-bouncing pitches they are not so obsessed by target hitting, which England now diligently practise on the eve of each match. England's batsmen keep bashing the ball out of the ground in training. On match days they have usually run out of wickets before having a chance to put that practice into action. The Indians play late; England just seem to want to hit hard.

Ashish Magotra, writing for Firstpost.com, says not so long ago Australia firmly established that great sides win home and away. Where, he asks, does that leave today's form teams?

For England and India – all the talk of number one has no meaning – if they can’t win away from home. Yes, these wins are important for India. But at the end of the day, they only prove what we already knew, India are tough to beat at home; in fact, they are very tough to beat at home. And for England too, the wins in England mattered. They were up against the best Test team in the world and they thoroughly slaughtered them. But then when you see them walk around like lost sheep, you can’t help but wonder… how do top teams lose the plot so easily?

The Indian Express' Aditya Iyer attends England's training session to see whether legspinner Scott Borthwick lives up to the hype.

A few yards in front of the England bowling coach at Ferozeshah Kotla’s practice nets, Scott Borthwick walked in purposefully towards the popping crease. The ball pitched outside the leg-stump, tore acutely across the willow, tied a bewildered Kevin Pietersen into ugly knots and had Ahmed spitting with praise and laughter. “Perfection Scotty, perfection,” the bubbly ‘Mr Mushy’ exclaimed, before adding, “Turned that one like the legend himself.”

In his review of the first one-dayer between India and England in the Guardian, Mike Selvey describes the template of a Dhoni innings.

First comes acclimatisation, during which time he assesses the situation, pace of the pitch, state of the bowling. If a hittable delivery comes along he will take advantage but otherwise he accumulates, quietly and unobtrusively, a flick here, a nudge there. This is a calculating man, though, his brain ticking all the while. While he is at the crease, batting is almost reduced to a mathematical equation. The assault, when it comes, is clinical in its conception and brutal in execution.

In the Deccan Herald, R Kaushik describes a trademark shot that Dhoni used effectively to hurt England in Hyderabad.

The helicopter shot is quintessential Dhoni, a fusion of timing and wrists and brute power generated from massively strong forearms. It’s a beautiful blend of rustic intelligence and studious analysis, a shot that defines the character of its practitioner. It’s a stroke Dhoni used to employ with no little success in the early stages of his career, but with growing time and greater responsibilities, he tended to rely on it increasingly sparsely.

It came to a point where Dhoni could no longer summon his patented stroke when he desired. He tried it – the big backlift, the bat coming in a scything arc to meet the fullish delivery, the snap of the wrists at the last minute and the strong forearms propelling the ball aerially – but only towards, not beyond, the long-on boundary.

And in the Mumbai Mirror Sriram Veera ponders whether the exclusion of Harbhajan Singh, and R Ashwin becoming the lead spinner, presents a generational shift in Indian spin or just a temporary change.

Chetan Narula, writing for Firstpost.com, says an iota of rest should not be under-rated, as MS Dhoni showed in the first ODI against England in Hyderabad.

All Dhoni got was less than 10 days [after the CLT20] before walking out for the toss again ... when he strode out at Hyderabad, the greyish stubble was gone. His hair seemed black again, most of it. The spring in the step wasn’t entirely back yet, but after the 126-run thrashing, none so much as mentioned queries about his [lost] Midas touch again.

In Dhoni’s renewed vigour is hope for the new (technically) season ... Dig a little deeper and there is an inherent case for giving players a little time off, allowing them to think about the merits and demerits of their own game, away from the spotlight. Mental preparation is as significant as net practice.

The Independent's Stephen Brenkley interviews Scott Borthwick, England's latest attempt at finding their own Shane Warne.

"I played club cricket with my dad and I was never big enough to bowl fast so I just thought I'd try to spin it. I suppose I could have bowled finger spin, but it was just watching Shane Warne on television, and trying to spin it like him. I grew through the ranks at Durham, joined the academy and it's gone from there."

Ever since Shane Warne played for Australia, England have got excited about anyone from their ranks who could spell the word googly let alone bowl one, Stephen Brenkley says in the Independent. The latest legspinner to find himself in the spotlight is Scott Borthwick.

He has been in the selectors' thoughts and minds for a while. This is partly because there remains a quaint desperation to find an English leg-spin bowler, partly because he has developed at every stage of his short career. In the past year or so, when the subject of spin bowlers has cropped up, it has been the norm to cast about for a No 2 to Graeme Swann.

Alastair Cook speaks to the Guardian about overcoming criticism, his experience so far as England ODI captain, looking back at his Ashes success, his Test debut and more.

This Friday, in Hyderabad, Cook begins his third series as England's one-day captain. He harbours ambitions, after England were undefeated against Sri Lanka and India, to gradually turn his team into as formidable an outfit as they are in Test cricket. As the current world No1, with Cook scoring 1,504 runs in his past 12 Tests, at an average of 94, England have been crushingly good in the five-day game. Cook, meanwhile, won the ICC's Test Cricketer of the Year.

"We haven't had our next set-your-goal Test meeting since becoming No1," he said, "but it goes without saying what we need to do next. We always said getting to No1 would show we're a good side. But we want to become a great side. The only way we can do that is by dominating for a very long time.

"The one-day team is at a different stage. But beating Sri Lanka and India, the two World Cup finalists this year, was a real statement. Obviously India weren't at full strength, but they were still a good side and to stop them winning a single game was brilliant."