Former England captain Michael Vaughan slammed the Pakistan cricket team for their dismal outing against England in the first ODI of the three-match series. On Thursday, disciplined England bowlers performed exceptionally well to guide their team to a nine-wicket win over the tourists. What makes the result even more embarrassing for Pakistan is that England had five debutants in their playing XI, with the team having named in haste after the original squad was isolated following cases of COVID-19 among them. Following the emphatic win, Vaughan heaped praise on the England young guns, saying that the performance of the team that was only formed yesterday was very impressive.
Vaughan was also critical of Pakistan's abysmal outing. He even went on to call the Babar Azam-led side's performance "pathetic".
"For England to rock up only yesterday as a team and perform as they did tells us so much about the culture of the white ball team .. very very impressive .. for Pakistan they were PATHETIC... It is the only way to describe a performance like that," Vaughan wrote on Twitter.
Interestingly, just hours before the start of the ODI series opener between England and Pakistan, Vaughan was all praise for the visitors, saying that he loved watching them play cricket.
"Love watching Pakistan play Cricket ... A team that can beat any team in the world on any given day but also lose to any team on any given day ... #ENGvPAK," Vaughan had tweeted earlier.
Fans of Pakistan cricket were not pleased with Vaughan's assessment of their national team's performance, and they showed their dissent in the comment section.
"Pakistan always makes a strong comeback after a humiliating defeat. Remember that," wrote a user.
Another user asked Vaughan if he had forgotten "World Cup 2019 when we crushed you?"
"Pakistan to win the series 2-1 now," said another Pakistan supporter.
Another user said that had the ball spun "England would have crumbled against straight 'uns".
However, there were people who supported Vaughan's view as well.
While one user wrote "pathetic probably doesn't cover it", another felt that even an "#England 3rd XI should still win the #series easily!"
The second ODI match between England and Pakistan will take place on Saturday at Lord's.