I disagree that Sri Lanka “showed up” England. England nearly won the first test with a last-over dismissal that wasn’t, and lost the second only with a last-but-one-ball dismissal that was. Let the scales turn even in the estimation of a hair, and the series result is reversed.
The Sri Lanka series could easily have ended up 1-0 the other way. India would have also won 1-0 had it been a 2 match series.
There’s always the risk of an upset in a 2 match series, can’t compare it to a 5 match series.
Anyone want to talk about the ODI series? After the first match was a washout, India gave a spirited performance yesterday to absolutely stuff England. When India lost the toss and were reduced to 19/2, it was looking like maybe the form of the Test series would continue. But a great innings from Raina turned it round and they posted what looked like a challenging total, helped by some wayward England bowling (especially Chris Jordan who somehow managed to concede 5 wides in a single over). Woakes had good figures until he was smashed for 20 in one over.
England’s reply started well, they were close to the 6/over required with the loss of only a couple of wickets in the first 15 or so overs, but then they collapsed to some good bowling and poor shots. Let’s hope they can turn it round in the same way as they did in the tests. I wouldn’t bet against it, but India’s team looks more suited to ODIs than England’s.
And there goes the series. I didn’t see any of it, but it appears to be another rather spineless performance by England. I have some sympathy with those who are saying Cook should not be in England’s best ODI XI, and therefore shouldn’t be captain, even though he seems to have consolidated his position as Test captain. On the other hand, different Test/ODI captains have been tried before and given most of the personnel will be the same, can lead to division and worse performance in both formats. That’s surely got to be worth a try though, as clearly the current system isn’t working well.
On the other hand, all credit to India for rebounding from their drubbing in the Test series - they look like a different team. There’s no shame in losing to such a strong outfit, but it is the pathetic manner of the defeats that has been disappointing for England.
I’m somehow unable to get myself excited about non World cup limited overs series. So the test series performance rankles every bit as much as it did earlier.
Good! 
And I agree with you, I’d feel the same way if the situation were reversed. The concern for England (as vocally, and perhaps unhelpfully, pointed out by Graham Swann and others) is that it’s hard to see them putting together a side that can be remotely competitive at the World Cup. At the moment, it looks like we’ll have to be content with avoiding embarrassment by the minnows, scraping into the final stages, and then being dumped out ignominously by one of the top sides. With the structure and investment England have, they really ought to be doing better than that.
On the other hand, one of the TMS bods made an interesting comment during one of the recent matches, to the effect that given the sheer number of players and amount of money in the game in India (their player base must be easily much bigger than the rest of the world put together, I would think), they really ought to be winning every single match they play. So perhaps England are lucky to ever beat them!
The thing is, while Indian cricket has a lot of money, it is very new money. The organisational structure that money flows to is still ramshackle and poorly governed, the fiefdom of political strongmen rather than professional sports managers. And given how poor most of the country is, nutrition and health are significant stumbling blocks in players making it to a professional level. With more economic growth it’s possible the advantages will begin to tell, but I think we have a few decades of competitive cricket left, at the very least 
Since we’re on the topic, let me push something I’ve wanted to share on the Dope for a while. Have you heard this(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr4bK63WxXY#t=87) speech by Dravid at the Bradman oration in Australia a couple of years ago? If you have half an hour free, I really recommend it. It’s one of those rare things - emotional, intelligent and entertaining. It also tells you a little bit about the experiences of cricketers who end up playing for India.
I haven’t seen it, sounds interesting. I actually won’t have half an hour free for a while but will try to remember this when I do!
England manage to drag themselves from ignominy when it doesn’t matter so much. At least in the test matches they did it in time to save the series.
Last game of the tour finished!
Decent game in the end, a tight finish that was looking like it could go either way all the way to the final few balls.
England will take some positives from this game, and the previous ODI that they won. And I think they deserve a lot of credit for turning the Test series around in the way they did - coming back to win the last three games as solidly as they did after a shaky first couple of games did them good. No test cricket now until April, and we’ll see how much of that side makes it through the winter to reselection. Bit of a break now, and then lots of ODI stuff building up to the world cup. And I don’t think anyone gives England much of a chance in that, do they?