England suffered an innings and 25 runs defeat in the fourth Test at Ahmedabad.
With this loss, the visitors also conceded the series 3-1 and Root said it would be stupid of his team to look for excuses.
England started the series on a positive note, winning the opening Test in Chennai by 227 runs. But Virat Kohli and company bounced back brilliantly to complete their 13th consecutive Test series victory at home.
"The guys have to embrace what's happened. They've to understand and they have to be realistic," Root told reporters after his side folded in three days in the final Test.
"We would be stupid to come away from this trip and just say 'It was India, it was extreme conditions, the ball was spinning and skidding on, it was impossible to bat'. That's the wrong attitude.
"The most important thing is we come away from here and we say 'You know what? There are things that we can get better at. Yes, they are world-class spinners, high performers at home in particular. Well we can be better'.
"What can we take away from this trip? I'm going to go away and make sure that if I find myself in this situation down the line, on the next tour, I will be better equipped to deal with that."
According to Root, his side was competitive during the series but India "out-skilled" them at crunch moments.
"It was disappointing. Credit does have to go to India. Again they've out-skilled us. They batted on that wicket very well, showed us how to bat on that wicket. And similarly today with the ball they were excellent."
During the series, England’s much-debated rotation policy came under the scanner. They also made errors in team selection by misreading the conditions.
"The rotation policy is there to look after the players," Root said. "It was all done with the best interests of the England team, the three formats across the whole year.
"There might have been areas where we could have done things slightly differently. Looking back, that's very easy to say. It's not the ideal scenario. As a captain, you always want all of your players available for selection."
(Inputs from Reuters)