Irfan Pathan exposes viral fake news involving Babar Azam

Irfan Pathan has exposed how Pakistani media created and spread a fabricated story involving him and Babar Azam. The false narrative claimed that the former Indian cricketer had attempted to interview the Pakistan batter, who then refused based on allegations about Pathan's social media activity. The story gained significant traction online, accumulating over a million views before the truth emerged.

Pathan discussed the incident on JioHotstar's Cheeky Singles platform, detailing how the fake story was constructed through digital manipulation of an image. The core deception involved placing his face onto a photograph of another reporter to create a false narrative.

"The media in our neighbouring country once ran a story claiming that I had gone to interview Babar Azam, and that he refused because, according to him, ‘He trolls our country, so I won’t give him an interview.’ It was a complete lie. Someone had photoshopped my face onto a picture," Pathan said on JioHotstar.

The original photograph featured a young Bangladeshi reporter who had visited the ground for the first time and was refused an interview. Pakistani media outlets digitally placed Pathan's face onto this image and constructed a narrative around it, falsely attributing the rejection to Babar Azam's objections about Pathan's online activity.

"The person in the original image was a young Bangladeshi reporter who had gone to the ground for the first time and was refused an interview. They literally put my face on his body and spread the story. It got over a million views, and people believed it was me." Pathan said.

"This happens every day, but I don’t respond. Every day, some lie is told in our name or about some player. If you keep responding to everyone, you won’t be able to live your life," he added.

For the unversed, Babar Azam recently led Pakistan to a victory over West Indies at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, leveling the two-match series 1–1. This was his first overseas win as captain since his return as captain of the side.