Babar Azam being heckled during Pak-India Champions Trophy match

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team reviewed this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a reverse image search to check if the video was from the Champions Trophy match between Pakistan and India on February 23, 2025, or not.

Posts from several users on various social media platforms on February 23, 2025, shared a video of spectators heckling Pakistan batter Babar Azam on his poor performance after the Green Shirts lost their Champions Trophy match against India. However, the video is old from November 2024.

The Indian cricket team won their Group A match against Pakistan by six wickets at the Dubai International Stadium. The host country gave a target of 242 runs to chase for the Indian cricket team which was mostly achieved by batsman Virat Kohli’s 51st ODI century. Pakistan have since faced heavy criticism from fans as well as cricket analysts for their poor batting as well as bowling performance.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 23, a user on X shared a video of Babar standing near the boundary of a cricket ground for fielding when spectators at the stadium shout and heckle him to criticise his performance.

The audience can be heard saying things like, “Have some shame” and “Go back to Lahore”.

In the caption, the X user penned, “I have no interest in cricket. As long as this evil government and this evil chairman exist, the players’ performances will remain like this. But what saddened me the most was watching this video of what our Pakistani brothers did to their hero during the match. Anger arises over defeat, but to utter such phrases during a match is to repeatedly mentally torture a player, that too a player who needs our encouragement so that his confidence increases and he is back in form. Why should we know what must have been going through his heart by doing this? Name any world player in the world who did not consider Babar the best player of his time. Nations encourage their heroes in times of difficulty, lest they break them from within by criticizing them with vulgar words and making fun of them.”

The video received 28,900 views and was shared 97 times.

Using a hashtag of “PAKVSIND”, an Indian account on X also shared the video with laughing emojis and wrote in the caption, “Babar Azam was being insulted a lot by Pakistani fans.”

The video received 4,475 views and was shared 30 times.

A post on TikTok also shared the video with the following caption overlaid on it: “Babar Azam roasted.”

The video gained over 92,000 views and was further shared 650 times and had over 3,600 reactions.

The clip was also shared on YouTube here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality, the high influx of content and criticism on Pakistan’s loss against India and intense public interest in the match and its aftermath.

An immediate visual analysis of the video showed that it was not from the Feb 23 match since Babar’s dark green kit did not match the Champions Trophy kit which is light green.

A reverse image search of the video resulted in several links, with most of them being from November 2024.

One of the links redirected to a report by AAJ News, titled “Video of fans heckling Babar Azam in Australia T20 goes viral.”

Dated November 17, 2024, the article mentioned that the cricketer was “subjected to negative chants”, citing his poor performance during the team’s tour in Australia.

News outlet HUM Sports also shared the video on their Facebook account on November 17, 2024, with the caption, “Babar Azam trolled by Pakistan fans in Sydney cricket ground goes viral.”

A keyword search of “Pakistan vs Australia November 2024” resulted in schedule and scorecards of ODI and T20 matches by sports news outlet ESPNcricinfo, confirming that the team went on a tour to Australia in 2024 which also corroborated the clip being from November 2024, not Champions Trophy 2025.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING

The claim that a video shows spectators heckling Babar Azam for his poor performance during the Pakistan-India Champions Trophy match on Feb 23, 2025, is misleading.

The clip is from November 2024 when Pakistan toured Australia, specifically from the T20 match on Nov 16.

Evidence and References

November 17, 2024, AAJ News report:
https://english.aaj.tv/news/330389229

November 17, 2024, HUM Sports Facebook video:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/9320783581265336

ESPN Cricinfo, Pakistan vs Australia 2024, Schedule and Results
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/australia-vs-pakistan-2024-25-1426544/match-schedule-fixtures-and-results