Indian media has hailed their cricket team's first Test victory on New Zealand soil since 1976 while former players backed the team to win their first Test series in New Zealand in four decades.
Television news channels described Saturday's 10-wicket victory in the opening Test in Hamilton as "historical" with newspapers running it as a front page stories Sunday.
"New zeal and glory," blared the headline in the Hindustan Times, while Mumbai paper DNA heralded "History in Hamilton: Test win after 33 years."
Spinner Harbhajan Singh took six wickets in New Zealand's second innings to complete an Indian victory in four days after Sachin Tendulkar had laid the foundations with a superb knock of 160.
Former New Zealand great Martin Crowe described the tourists as the best Indian team to have toured his country.
"There is no doubt...it is the best Indian side that I have ever seen," he wrote in Mumbai's Mid Day tabloid.
"I am certainly surprised that it has taken India 33 years to win a Test match here when you consider (former India captain) Kapil Dev's abilities to win a game and he didn't do that."
India is third in the International Cricket Council Test rankings while New Zealand is placed eighth.
"I wasn't surprised. It was very much expected from the present team," former India captain Ajit Wadekar told CNN-IBN channel.
"I am sure we can win a series in New Zealand for the first time in 41 years," added Wadekar, who was part of India's only Test series success in New Zealand in 1968.
The second match of the three-Test series starts in Napier Thursday. India completed their first one-day series win on New Zealand soil 3-1 this month.
