That's Ashish Nehra With Young Virat Kohli, Not UK PM Rishi Sunak

The picture is from 2003, which shows young Virat Kohli receiving an award from Ashish Nehra.

A childhood picture of former Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli receiving an award is going viral with a claim that years ago, a young Kohli was awarded by Rishi Sunak, who has now been appointed as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Several social media users have shared this picture after India's victory against Pakistan on 23 October in the 2022 T20 World Cup, which saw Kohli guiding the country to victory with an impeccable and unbeaten knock of 82 runs.

However, the picture that is now being shared is from 2003 and shows Kohli being awarded by former cricketer Ashish Nehra.

CLAIM

The claim suggests that the picture shows young Kohli receiving an award from the new UK PM, Rishi Sunak.

The image was uploaded with a caption that said, "Did you know? Current UK PM @RishiSunak once had awarded @imVkohli in his childhood and even had offered him a place in the England Cricket team. But Kohli denied the offer and went onto become one of the greats in Indian cricket."

While some shared the picture claiming it to be that of Sunak, others shared it with a sarcastic remark. (See here)

Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

On conducting a reverse image search on the picture, we came across a video uploaded on The Quint's official YouTube channel on 2 November 2017.

The video was was titled, "This Picture is Famous Because of Virat, Not Me: Ashish Nehra | The Quint".

At around 0:31-second mark, the viral picture can be seen. Talking about it, Nehra can be heard saying, "The picture is famous because of Virat, not me."

Further, we came across a report published by NDTV published on 2 November 2017, where Kohli had reacted to the picture and mentioned that the picture dates back to 2003 when Nehra had come back from the World Cup. Kohli also added that he was 13 at that time.

We also found a tweet posted by former Indian Captain Mohammed Azharuddin, who clarified that the people seen in the picture are Kohli and Nehra.

We also found the picture on Kohli's Facebook profile, where he shared the picture in 2015 with a caption, "A Word Cup Warrior since childhood." The description underneath the picture notes, "A young Kohli sets off on the path to stardom. He accepts an award from pace bowler Ashish Nehra."

WHO IS THE NEW UK PM?

Rishi Sunak was appointed as the prime minister of United Kingdom on 25 October after he met King Charles III at the Buckingham Palace.

His predecessor Liz Truss resigned last week, which led to a leadership contest in the Conservative Party, and after his rivals – Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt – dropped out, Sunak was elected as the Tory Leader.

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