England pulled off an incredible 28-run victory from the jaws of defeat in the opening Test against India in Hyderabad on Sunday (January 28).

After conceding a significant first-innings lead of 190 runs, the visitors were in dire straits at 165/5 during their second essay. However, Ollie Pope stepped up to the plate under immense pressure, slamming 196 to propel England to 420, setting a stiff target of 231 for India.

Chasing the target, the home side capitulated to be bowled out for 202 in 69.2 overs and went 1-0 down in the five-match series.

After the game, former England skipper Michael Vaughan slammed Rohit Sharma for not being proactive while captaining India in the Hyderabad Test.

Vaughan termed Rohit’s captaincy as ‘average’ and added that the latter was clueless when Ollie Pope was playing sweeps and reverse sweeps at will.

“I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very average. I thought he was so reactive, I don’t think he manoeuvred his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he didn’t have any answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

According to Vaughan, India should have changed their tactics when Pope and the other English batters were scoring runs with ease.

“The greatest spinner I’ve seen, Shane Warne, would go around the wicket and get the player to sweep the leg side and say good luck trying to do that. I didn’t see that any of that from India.

“It was just all too easy. The way that England play, they will always score boundaries. And by spreading the field, Sharma was basically saying that his bowlers’ best balls would still go for one,” he added.

Tom Hartley, who was playing his debut Test in Hyderabad, starred with the ball for England on the penultimate day. The left-arm spinner ran through the Indian batting line-up in the second innings, returning with a seven-wicket haul (7/62).

After taking a 1-0 lead in the series, England skipper Ben Stokes described the Hyderabad Test win as their "greatest triumph" since he took over as captain.

"Since I've taken the captaincy on, we've had a lot of fantastic moments as a team," Stokes said at the post-match presentation. "We've had a lot of great victories, we've been involved in some amazing games. But I think [with] where we are and who we're playing against, this victory is 100%, definitely our greatest triumph since I've been captain."