No, Coach Gambhir Did Not Confirm Kohli and Sharma for 2027 ICC World Cup

The original video was manipulated using AI to mislead the viewers.

A video of Indian cricket team coach Gautam Gambhir saying that the inclusion of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the team squad for the 2027 ICC World Cup is confirmed is going viral on social media platforms.

What did the video show?: Gambhir was heard saying, "Virat and Rohit in this series, specially the intent shown by Virat. Two hundreds and one fifty, surely, he is the best batsman on the planet right now. Brother, I am saying this that these two [Rohit and Virat] will be there for the 2027 World Cup, hundred percent."

The above post had gained over 38 thousand likes on the platform.

More archives of similar claims could be found here and here.

What is the truth?: There is no evidence to prove that the Indian coach indeed made such statements. The video had been manipulated using the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to mislead the viewers.

How did we find that out?: On conducting a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video, we found the full-version of the press conference available on the official website of the BCCI.

• Gambhir was heard saying that the World Cup is two years away and emphasised focusing on the present.

• He complemented the performance of young players like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

• Nowhere did he mention about Kohli and Sharma being confirmed for the 2027 ICC World Cup. This indicated the possibility of the viral video being manipulated using AI.

What did AI detection tool show?: Team WebQoof noticed that the viral clip had a smoothened texture, which is commonly spotted in AI-generated/manipulated visuals.

• We then passed the video through a detection tool named 'DeepFake-O-Meter' to further verify its authenticity.

• Six detectors conclusively showed that the viral video had "AI-Generated Likelihood".

Conclusion: It is evident that the video was AI-manipulated and there is no evidence to prove that Gambhir indeed made such statements.

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