Viral videos are unrelated to the India vs Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match on 23 February 2025
In the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in their Group A match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 23 February 2025. Amidst this, several videos have gone viral on social media (here, here, and here). The first video claims to show the entire stadium singing India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana in Dubai. The second allegedly captures a Pakistan player crying in the dressing room after the loss, and the third claims to show Indian players dancing to Punjabi songs to celebrate their victory. Let’s verify the claims made in the post through this article.
Claim: Visuals from the India vs Pakistan match in the ICC Champions Trophy on 23 February 2025.
Fact: The viral videos are unrelated to the India vs Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy match on 23 February 2025. The first video of the crowd singing the national anthem is from the 2023 ODI World Cup match on 14 October 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The second, showing a Pakistan player crying, is from 19 February 2025, when Fakhar Zaman was ruled out due to injury. The third, showing Indian players dancing, is from the T20 World Cup 2024 victory celebrations on 29 June 2024 in Barbados. Hence, the claims made in these posts are FALSE.
Video 1
We noticed a watermark of @indiastalents on the viral video. A Google keyword search led us to the same video (archived) on the Instagram handle of @indiastalents, posted on 17 October 2023, confirming that the video is old and not from the India vs Pakistan match in the ICC Champions Trophy on 23 February 2025.
We noticed that the video captures the moment of the national anthem, which both teams sing before the start of a match. The flags of Pakistan and India are visible in the footage. A keyword search revealed that India played against Pakistan in the ODI World Cup on 14 October 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India won the match convincingly by seven wickets. We also found the national anthem video from the same match.
It is important to note that the national anthem was sung even during the Champions Trophy match on 23 February 2025 as evident from the complete commentary of the match. However, it can be concluded that the viral video is not from that day.
Video 2
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to an Instagram post on the official Pakistan cricket team handle, featuring an extended version of the same video (archived) dated 19 February 2025. This confirms that the video predates the India vs Pakistan match in the ICC Champions Trophy on 23 February 2025. The post’s caption read: Heartbreaking visuals from Karachi after Fakhar Zaman was forced out of #ChampionsTrophy 2025 with an injury .
Taking a clue from the Instagram post, we found multiple news reports (here and here) featuring screenshots of the same video. The reports stated that Pakistani opener Fakhar Zaman was emotional after being ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to an injury. He sustained the injury while fielding but continued to bat at number four, scoring 24 off 41 balls before being dismissed by Michael Bracewell, in the match against New Zealand.
Video 3
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video (archived) uploaded on the official YouTube channel of the ICC (International Cricket Council) on 30 June 2024. The video description revealed that it was taken after the T20 World Cup victory.
We found multiple news reports (here, here, and here) featuring screenshots from the same video. According to these reports, as Team India celebrated their thrilling victory over South Africa in the final on 29 June 2024 in Barbados, standout performers Virat Kohli and Arshdeep Singh showcased their bhangra skills.
To sum up, the viral videos are not from the India vs Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy match on 23 February 2025.