Lionel Messi’s picture wearing T-shirt with BCCI logo is morphed

An image of Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi caped in a T-shirt with the logo of BCCI, MPL, and BYJU is viral on social media.

“At first I thought I got a place in India's Test team,” read the caption

The image is widely misinterpreted as Messi representing Indian Cricket Team and MPL.

Fact check

NewsMeter found that the viral image of Messi wearing a BCCI T-shirt is morphed.

We started our investigation by scanning Lionel Messi’s official social media handles. In our search, we found a post with the same image uploaded on his Instagram account dated January 9, 2023.

We noticed that the image is entirely the same except for the BCCI and MPL logos. In his Instagram post, Messi could be seen wearing a BYJU T-shirt.

Moreover, the caption is indicative of Messi promoting BYJU’s Education for all initiative as the current brand Ambassador of BYJU.

Moving forward, we found the same image posted on the Official Instagram account of BYJU with the same caption.

Through a simple keyword search, we found a media report in the Hindustan Times that also include the viral image without the BCCI and MPL logos.

A comparison picture can be seen below.

Therefore, Messi's image has been morphed.

The claim stands false.