Lookalikes of Indian cricketing superstars in Gujarat are diving for cover after the team's shock defeat to lowly Bangladesh and subsequent loss to Sri Lanka forced the 1983 champions to slink home in disgrace.

• India's fallen heroes return home

Some men who bear more than a passing resemblance to Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni say angry fans now hurl insults and sometimes even stones at them.

"I can't walk on the streets, people jeer and threaten me," said Tendulkar lookalike Suresh Rathod in Ahmedabad.

Until just a few days ago, 35-year-old Rathod would don the sky blue Indian team uniform and inaugurate restaurants and beauty parlours in Ahmedabad.

"People paid me and invited me to attend programmes and parties, today they are all venting their anger," he said.

Cricket is taken very seriously in India, where top players are huge celebrities with astronomical earnings to match.

Hundreds of fans across India burnt effigies, defaced posters and held mock funeral processions for the national team, a day after last week's ignominious World Cup exit.

Yogendra Shah, who looks a lot like batsman Virender Sehwag, said his neighbours on the outskirts of Ahmedabad threw stones at him after India's defeat, but later apologised to him and his family.

"The extreme reaction of people is understandable. The Indian team betrayed the trust of the millions who worship them and pray for them," said Shah, who works in a private firm.

Some people who resemble top cricketers and Bollywood actors find work in small-budget Hindi films and television serials and enjoy celebrity status themselves in Indian towns and villages.

After the Caribbean debacle, disappointed fans gathered outside the home of Mukesh Soni, a dead ringer for glamorous wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and burnt posters of the player.

"I got lots of attention when Dhoni played well, girls came to me for my autograph. Now they don't," Soni said.