International Cricket Council (ICC) ran a simple Twitter poll asking fans to choose their favorite cricketer, whose game grew after becoming captain of their respective national team. The options given were Australia’s Meg Lanning, South Africa’s AB de Villiers, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and India’s Virat Kohli.

This poll became a showdown of sorts between Twitter users from India and Pakistan. "Captaincy proved a blessing for some extraordinary cricketers. Their averages improved as leaders. You decide which of these ‘pacesetters’ were the best among these geniuses!" ICC wrote in a tweet.

Despite giving a close run to Imran Khan, who won the 1992 World Cup as captain of Pakistan, 2011 World Cup winner India’s Virat Kohli finished at the second spot. The cricket body then reminded of the growing averages of the cricketers as they became captains of their respective countries.

Pakistan's 1992 World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan saw his batting average in Test cricket rising from 25 to a whopping 52. While Kohli's ODI batting average jumped from 51 to an impressive 73 once he led India.

Imran Khan, who is currently the Prime Minister of Pakistan, barely earned first place with 47.3% of the votes, while Kohli came in second with 46.2% votes.

Imran Khan beats Virat Kohli in ICC's poll of captains whose game rose with leadership

A Pakistani news channel ARY News was highly elated with Imran Khan’s victory and showed this poll result as a ‘breaking news’ on their show. Pakistani journalist and columnist Naila Inayat pointed out a "breaking news" segment on the channel on social media.

This led to hilarious comments from Twitter users, which gladly trolled the new channel and Pakistan for doing such an inane thing and posting Imran Khan’s win in a ICC poll as breaking news.

Here are a few tweets: