A morphed image showing Bangladeshi cricketers in burqas on the ground is being circulated with the false claim that it captures a moment from the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 match between New Zealand and Bangladesh.
BOOM found the claim to be false and was able to confirm that the viral image was digitally altered using artificial intelligence.
Bangladesh faced New Zealand on October 10, 2025, in the Women’s Cricket World Cup and lost by 100 runs. The international cricket tournament is currently taking place in India and Sri Lanka and will continue until November 2.
The Claim
Several verified X handles shared the picture with the caption, "Wait… is the Bangladesh women’s team playing cricket or shooting a burqa edition of “Lagaan” against New Zealand?!"
Click here to view one such post and here for an archive.
What We Found: Viral Picture Is Digitally Manipulated
1. No Such Moment During The Match: BOOM ran a related keyword search but found no news reports corroborating the claim. We also reviewed the match highlights on the ICC’s official website and found no evidence of Bangladeshi openers playing in burqas.
The footage below shows New Zealand’s Rosemary Mair taking her team’s first wicket by bowling out Bangladesh opener Sharmin Akhter Supta, who was wearing the team jersey.
2. AI Detector Tool Suggests Manipulation: We also noticed Google AI’s watermark on the viral image. To verify further, we tested the image using the AI detection tool Undetectable AI, which confirmed that the picture had been manipulated using artificial intelligence.
