A viral picture showing the Argentinian star footballer Lionel Messi wearing the Indian Cricket Team’s test jersey is doing the rounds on social media. Users have shared the image thinking as if Messi got selected in the Indian Cricket team.
A Facebook user posted the viral picture with a caption: প্রথমে ভেবেছিলাম India র টেস্ট টিমে জায়গা পেয়েছে । (English translation: I thought that India got a place in the test team.)
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral picture, and found it to be misleading.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the viral picture, we identified the official Instagram handle of Lionel Messi. The image matches the viral picture except for the logo of BCCI and MPL on his chest. The caption of the image informs us that Messi (the recent brand ambassador of Byju’s) posted the picture to promote the ‘Education for all initiative’ by the ed-tech platform.
The same picture has been reposted on Byju’s official Instagram handle as well. Here too, Messi is wearing a white jersey with Byju’s logo in the middle and without BCCI and MPL sports on the chest.
An article in Hindustan Times, dated January 11, 2023 and titled: Messi says Namaste India, joins BYJU’s EFA campaign as global brand ambassador, carries the same image and informs about Messi’s partnership with the ed-tech giant for its Education for All (EFA) foundation.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral picture showing Messi wearing the Indian cricket team’s test jersey is edited with misleading claims.
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