No, This Video Doesn’t Show Ish Sodhi Tearing up at Indian National Anthem

The video is old and predates the match on 8 March by at least two weeks.

An old video is being shared to falsely claim that it shows New Zealand bowler Ish Sodhi tearing up when the Indian national anthem played.

(Source: Republic/Altered by The Quint)

A video of New Zealand bowler Inderbir Singh Sodhi, also known as Ish Sodhi, tearing up is being widely shared on social media, days after the team played and lost against their Indian counterpart in the 2025 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

What is the claim?: The video is being shared to claim that Sodhi, who was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, got sentimental when the Indian national anthem played before the final match of the tournament started.

• Among those sharing the claim was news organisation Republic, who shared a screenshot of the video with the same claim.

The report shared the same claim.

(Source: Republic/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing the same claim can be seen here, here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video dates back to February 2026 and does not show him crying before the final match.

How do we know?: To start with, we checked whether Sodhi was one of the eleven players from the New Zealand side during the finals.

• A report by The Indian Express did not mention his name among those of playing members in the final India vs NZ match.

He was not a playing member in the finals.

(Source: The Indian Express/Screenshot)

• ESPN CricInfo's website also noted that Sodhi was not playing in the finals, but was on the bench.

Sodhi was benched for the finals.

(Source: ESPN CricInfo/Screenshot)

• Next, we ran a reverse image search on the video, which led us to an Instagram post shared on 24 February, predating the final match by two weeks.

• Its caption mentioned that it showed Sodhi crying during New Zealand's anthem.

More social media posts sharing these visuals in February can be seen here and here.

Where was he born?: The claim that he was born in Ludhiana is true.

• As per his profile on ESPN CricInfo, Sodhi was born in Punjab and migrated to Auckland when he was a child.

He was born in Ludhiana, Punjab.

(Source: ESPN CricInfo/Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: An old video of Ish Sodhi is being shared to falsely claim that it shows him tearing up during the Indian national anthem before the India vs New Zealand match on 8 March.

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