After the Pahalgam attack on 22 April 2025, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor on 07 May. Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who briefed the media in Hindi, gained widespread attention (here, here, and here). Meanwhile, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi made a sensational IPL debut, scoring a century in 35 balls for Rajasthan Royals (here, here, and here). Amidst this, a photo of Sofiya Qureshi and Vaibhav Suryavanshi posing together is going viral on social media (here, here, and here). Let’s verify the authenticity of this photo in this article.
Claim: The photo shows Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi posing together.
Fact: The viral photo of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi with cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi is digitally altered. The original photo was posted by Vaibhav in March 2024, which featured him with former cricketer Wasim Jaffer at a cricket event in Andhra Pradesh. Wasim Jaffer’s photo was replaced with Colonel Qureshi’s. Additionally, no credible evidence was found showing them posing together. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to an Instagram post by cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi, dated 24 March 2024. The post featured a similar photo with the same background, but it showed him with former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer, not Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.
On comparing the viral photo with the original one of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Wasim Jaffer, it is clear that the viral photo was edited. Wasim Jaffer was digitally replaced with Colonel Sofiya Qureshi to falsely show them posing together.
Upon searching the internet for more context about this picture, we found (here, here, and here) that it was taken on 26 November 2023 in Mulapadu, Andhra Pradesh. The meeting took place during a cricket event, where Jaffer, who was then the head coach of the Bangladesh U-19 team, spotted Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Notably, we did not find any credible media reports or photographs of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi together, either in the past or up to the time this article was written.
To sum up, this viral photo of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi with cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi is digitally altered.
