London, Aug. 10 : Former Indian cricket captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has claimed that England would have ''hit the panic button'' if the UK riots had occurred in India.

Gavaskar's verbal swipe came as the two sides prepare to meet in the third Test at Edgbaston from today.

According to the Sun, the game has been given the go-ahead to proceed by security chiefs - even though the ground is only a mile from Birmingham city centre, where hundreds of youths went on the rampage this week.

Gavaskar, a veteran of 125 Tests who is here commentating for BBC''s Test Match Special and other television channels, believes Andrew Strauss''s men would not have stuck things out like M S Dhoni''s Indian side is doing.

Gavaskar, 62, said: "No question about it, they would have been pressing the panic button. They would have been talking in terms of the team returning home. That is a given." (ANI)