A video of former cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, where he can be heard criticising and asking a team to focus more on their performance, is being shared on the internet to claim that he is referring to Pakistan's recent test series loss to England.
Social media users have shared the 52-second-long clip with the caption, "Shoaib Akhtar’s message to Pakistan cricket team after the embarrassing whitewash, 3-0 loss against england at home. #pakveng (sic)."
At the writing of writing this report, the video had garnered more than 1,07,700 views.
(Another archive of a similar claim can be found here.)
England whitewashed Pakistan: After defeating Pakistan 3-0 in the test series, England became the first ever team to whitewash the former in their own country. Akhtar's video is being shared to take a dig at the Pakistani cricket team.
How true is the claim?: The video is from December 2020 and shows Akhtar criticising the Indian cricket team after they lost the first test match against Australia in the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
What led us to the original video?: At first, we noticed some evident cuts which pointed towards the possibility of the video being edited.
A simple reverse search on one of the frames of the video, supplementing it with keywords such as "Shoaib Akhtar", directed us to an article published on Metro, a British newspaper, on 20 December 2020.
The article mentioned that Akhtar called India's loss against Australia "embarrassing" in the first test held in Adelaide.
It also carried a YouTube video from Akhtar's official channel.
The video was uploaded on 19 December 2020 and its caption said, "Mighty India Comes Crushing Down In Front of Aussie’s Fast Bowling."
Akhtar could be heard saying, "I can't understand why so much hype is created, and then a performance like this is delivered. It happens, it's not like it doesn't happen, even we have gotten out, but India has gone ahead of us."
He further mentions the Indian team's performance was "embarrassing" and suggested that they should focus more on their performance.
Which match/series is Akhtar referring to?: In the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India lost the first match after registering their lowest-ever test total of 36 runs, drawing worldwide criticism. The Indian cricket team later went on to etch history after making a comeback and winning the series against Australia.
Conclusion: An old video of Shoaib Akhtar criticising Indian cricket team's performance is being shared linking it with the recent defeat of Pakistan against England.
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