Fact Check: Pakistan fielder’s trouser slides off in bid to stop Kohli’s boundary in Champions Trophy match? Here’s the truth
A video has gone viral for showing the wardrobe malfunction of a Pakistani player allegedly while he attempted to stop Kohli’s boundary in the recent India-Pak match.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 26 Feb 2025 7:29 PM IST
Claim: The video shows Pakistan’s fielder’s wardrobe malfunction as he attempted to prevent Virat Kohli from reaching his century during the Champions Trophy match in Dubai.
Fact: The claim is false. The wardrobe malfunction clip is from a Pakistan-Australia T20 match played in November 2024.
Hyderabad: In a high-stakes ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match in Dubai against Pakistan on February 23, Virat Kohli delivered a match-winning innings, scoring an unbeaten 100 to guide India to a six-wicket victory while chasing a target of 241. With just two runs needed for victory, Kohli struck a boundary, sealing the win and reaching his century in style.
Meanwhile, a purported video of the match has gone viral.
The video is a mix of clips; one shows skipper Rohit Sharma gesturing Virat Kohli from the stands to complete his century with a boundary and the other shows an unfortunate yet amusing moment involving a Pakistani fielder. As he slid towards the ball to stop it before it reached the boundary, he unexpectedly suffered a wardrobe malfunction with his trousers sliding off his legs at the rope. The video concludes with a clip of Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir applauding Kohli’s century.
The video is being circulated with the claim that it shows the fielder’s wardrobe malfunction as he allegedly attempted to prevent Virat Kohli from reaching his century during the Champions Trophy match in Dubai.
An X user shared the video with the caption, “Virat Kohli’s last shot got down the pants of the Pakistani fielder. Watch carefully.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The clip of the fielder’s wardrobe malfunction is from a different match between Pakistan and Australia in November 2024.
In the viral video, we noticed that the jerseys of Pakistani players were different in each clip—the first clip featured the bowler in light green, while the second showed the fielders in dark green. This discrepancy has raised suspicion that the wardrobe malfunction clip may not be from the match played in Dubai on February 23.
We conducted a keyword search and found the match-winning shot, which also marked Virat Kohli’s century, posted on the ICC’s Facebook account on February 23. This video did not include any such fielding attempt as seen in the viral clip.
Additionally, we reviewed a two-minute video published by the streaming platform JioHotstar, showcasing all the fours and sixes from Kohli’s unbeaten, match-winning 100-run knock. However, we did not find the alleged embarrassing fielding moment in the footage.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the keyframes, we found a report by One Cricket featuring an image of the wardrobe malfunction in an article published on November 18, 2024, titled ‘Pakistan’s Jahandad Khan Loses Trousers After an Embarrassing Dive.’
According to the report, Pakistan pacer Jahandad Khan, who was making his debut in the third T20I against Australia faced a wardrobe slip-up while attempting to stop the ball from reaching the boundary.
The report also included a longer version of the clip posted by Cricket.com.au on November 18, 2024, with the caption, “Jahandad Khan loses his dacks!”
The video showed an Australian batsman slicing a delivery from Shaheen Afridi towards the third man, prompting Jahandad to sprint across the field to stop it from reaching the boundary. As he dived to prevent the ball from crossing the rope, his trousers unexpectedly slid away.
Therefore, we conclude that the clip of the wardrobe malfunction is not from the Champions Trophy India-Pakistan match played on February 23. The claim is false.
