'India victory over Australia at the Gabba any day!'- Netizens react after Michael Vaughan asks if England's win at Rawalpindi was greatest

England showed a lot of grit and determination against Pakistan to win the first Test match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium by 74 runs. The Three Lions stuck to their strength i.e. the ‘Bazball’ approach in both innings where they scored at a brisk rate and then the bowlers succeeded in picking up wickets at regular intervals on the final day’s play and took the game away from Pakistan.

The English team’s famous win at Rawalpindi impressed former skipper Michael Vaughan to such an extent that he took to his official Twitter handle and ran a poll asking the cricket fans whether this was the greatest ever Test victory for England.

However, some of the Indian cricket fans came forward and reminded Vaughan about India's win, saying that nothing beats India’s Gabba win against Australia (January 2021). Meanwhile, one of the fans also reminded the Englishman about Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman’s match-winning partnership against the then formidable Australian side at the Adelaide Oval, in December 2003.

The Indian fans do have a valid point here when they are talking about India’s Test triumphs against Australia. While the Indian team have registered back-to-back red-ball series victories down under in the 2018/19 and the 2020/21 seasons, England have struggled on Australian soil for nearly a decade.

The Three Lions were handed a 5-0 whitewash in 2013/14. It was followed by a 4-0 thrashing in the 2017/18 season and another 4-0 humiliation was witnessed earlier this year at the Ashes.

Coming back to the Rawalpindi Test match, what made England’s victory even more special was the fact that it was their first-ever Test in Pakistan after a long gap of 17 years.

The Babar Azam-led side were in the driver’s seat needing only 263 runs on the fifth day chasing 343. During the final session, they only had 86 more runs to get, but the hosts went on to suffer a dramatic batting collapse and were bundled out for 268.

Here are some of the reactions.