An old video of former Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam being heckled by spectators during a match has been falsely linked to the recent India-Pakistan match at Dubai International Stadium in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.
Several social media users shared the video, claiming it occurred during the high-intensity India-Pakistan match where India defeated Pakistan, with Virat Kohli scoring a century.
BOOM found that the incident is old and not related to the India-Pakistan match. The video captures the crowd trolling Babar Azam during a Pakistan-Australia T20 match at Sydney Cricket Ground on November 16, 2024.
In the viral video, a group of spectators can be seen taunting Babar Azam during a match, telling him that he has no place in the T20 format.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Babar Azam was being insulted a lot by Pakistani fans.. INDvsPAK".
(Original Text in Hindi: बाबर आज़म की बेइज्जती पाकिस्तान के फैन्स ही बहुत कर रहे थे..)
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Fact Check
BOOM extracted keyframes from the video and ran a reverse image search on them; we found an Instagram post from November 17, 2024, confirming that it is not from the recent ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
We also noticed in the viral video that, at one point, the display board inside the stadium reads "Sydney Cricket Ground," located in Australia. Furthermore, we observed that the jersey Azam is wearing in the video differs from Pakistan's official jersey for the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.
Following this lead, we ran a related keyword search and found multiple news reports about the trolling that took place during a T20 match between Australia and Pakistan at Sydney Cricket Ground on November 16, 2024.
According to a report published by The Times of India on November 17, 2024 Azam faced criticism from the spectators during the match. An excerpt reads, "Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who was standing on the ropes during Pakistan's time to field in the first innings, found himself targeted by trolls in the crowd. A group of fans taunted him, shouting, "Have some shame, (T20 mein teri jagah nahi banti) you have no place in T20s, go back to Pakistan."
Pakistani news outlet ARY News also reported on the video, including a statement from cricketer Imam-ul-Haq voicing support for Azam. The report quoted Haq supporting Azam, saying, “As a nation, we have failed. Instead of supporting, we mock. Babar, you are still a champion.”
