Comparison of Mohammed Shami for skipping fasting in Champions Trophy semi-final 2025 with Hashim Amla for playing famous knock against England in July 2012 while fasting

Rating Justification

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

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify team conducted a keyword search to investigate whether or not South African cricket Hashim Amala was fasting during his famous July 2012 knock against England.

Posts from multiple users on X on March 4, 2025, compared Indian bowler Mohammed Shami with Amla and pointed out how the former wasn’t fasting during India’s Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final while the latter scored a historic triple century during the month of Ramazan in July 2012 against England. However, Amla has clarified in the past that he was not fasting in that match.

India played against Australia in the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai, emerging victorious by 4 wickets, on March 4, 2025, which coincided with the Islamic date of 3rd Ramazan, 1446 AH. The month of Ramazan is observed by Muslims all around the world as a holy time to fast i.e. abstaining from drinking and eating anything, believing the act to be a form of worship.

HOW IT STARTED

On March 4, 2025, a user on X shared two screengrabs; one of Shami drinking a beverage during India’s Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final match and another one of Amla when he scored 311 runs against England during a test match in July 2012.

The post’s caption said, “Take a cue from Hashim Amla’s remarkable inning, where he played this incredible knock while fasting during Ramazan. In the cricketing world of Mohammad Shami, aspire to emulate Amla’s perseverance, discipline, and faith.”

The post gained 22,700 views.

The comparison took over social media as multiple others users on X made similar posts as can be seen here, here, here, here and here, drawing a contrast between the two cricketers and implying that Amla was better than Shami for not abandoning the fast.

Another X post implied in a video edit that Shami did not bowl because he was fasting while Amla made his triple century in that state too. The user wrote in the caption, “Remember this knock by Hashim Amla while fasting?”

The post received over 163,000 views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to the public’s keen interest in the Champions Trophy after India secured a place in the final, while Pakistan exited early, and the nature of the criticism targeting Shami’s religious identity for something that is purely a personal matter.

Despite no video footage available of the moment, the matter of Shami drinking during the match in the day when India were bowling, thus meaning he was not fasting, was corroborated by reports by multiple Indian media and news outlets covering the criticism focused at him.

Meanwhile, a keyword search for “Hashim Amla” and “300 knock” to investigate further the circumstances of that July 2012 match yielded the cricketer’s interview with The Guardian, dated July 22, 2012 and titled “Hashim Amla is ‘overwhelmed’ by record-breaking knock for South Africa,” which he gave after becoming the first South African batsman to make a triple century.

In the conversation, the batsman had clearly stated that he was not fasting during his record-breaking feat as the interview quoted him as saying, “Because I’m travelling away from home I don’t have to fast. So I haven’t been fasting. But I will make it up when I get home.”

The quote confirmed that Amla refrained from fasting during the lengthy match.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding the juxtaposition between Indian bowler Mohammed Shami and South African batsman Hashim Amla that the former skipped fasting in his Champions Trophy semi-final match while the latter played a brilliant Test knock while fasting against England in July 2012 is false.

Amla said on record that he was not fasting in that match and thus any comparisons between the two players criticising and demeaning the Indian bowler for supposedly prioritising sport over religion are unwarranted and ill-founded.

Evidence and References

July 22, 2012, Hashim Amla’s interview with The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/22/hashim-amla-record-south-africa