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| - A viral photo claiming an Afghanistan cricketer celebrated with the Indian national flag after the team's win against England at the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy is edited and fake.
BOOM found that in the original footage from the match, the individual seen in the viral photo is empty handed and not holding the Indian tricolour. We further identified him as Nasir Khan, part of the Afghanistan cricket team's media management team, who confirmed to BOOM that he was not carrying anything in his hands and the photo is edited to show him holding the Indian flag.
Afghanistan knocked England out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on February 26 with a thrilling eight-run victory at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. Batting first, they posted their highest-ever total in an ICC Men's ODI tournament, setting a challenging target of 326, with Ibrahim Zadran scoring a remarkable 177 off 146 balls. In a must-win Group B clash, Joe Root fought back with a sublime 120, but England fell short, ending their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
The photo which shows a member of the Afghanistan team's support staff greeting the team member Rashid Khan with an Indian flag. The image is being shared with a Hindi text that translates to, "After winning against England, Afghanistan team raised the Indian flag on Pakistani ground which made the people of entire Pakistan furious."
(Original Text in Hindi: इंग्लैंड से जीतने के बाद अफगानिस्तान की टीम ने पाकिस्तानी ग्राउंड पर लहराया भारतीय झंडा जिसे देखकर पूरे पाकिस्तान अवाम् की सुलग गई।)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The same photo was used in a report by a YouTube channel named First Cricket with the same false claim.
Click here to view the report and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM identified the support staff member who confirmed that he was not holding any flag in his hand and further able to confirm that the flag is edited into the photo to make the viral claim.
We first noticed that the flag is suspended mid-air, with nobody grasping the flag. We have highlighted the same in a close up picture below :
We then reviewed the full replay of the group stage match between England and Afghanistan in the ICC Champions Trophy on February 26, 2025, on JioHotstar to verify the viral visual.
The exact visual was found in the replay, with the Afghanistan cricket team support staff member not holding anything in his hands.
The original visual of the incident can be seen at the counter 9:09:21 time mark in the replay of the game, when Afghanistan team member Rashid Khan was joined by others including support staff to celebrate following their victory over England.
The original interaction as visible in the match replay can be seen below:
We also compared the original visual with the viral photo. The comparison shows that the Indian flag was digitally added to make the false claim.
Further, we identified the team member seen in the photo as Nasir Khan, who is part of Afghanistan cricket team's media management team.
Speaking to BOOM, Khan rubbished the viral claim and confirmed that the photo is edited, "I was then going to hug Rashid. I was not carrying any flag at that moment," he said.
BOOM also tested the photo using the AI detector tool Hive Moderation, which concluded that the image is unlikely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
This confirmed that the flag has been added using editing tools and is not AI generated.
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