A set of images of Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya with actor Ananya Panday is going viral to claim that the duo was spotted together after India defeated Australia in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Those sharing the images have uploaded them with a caption that said, "Hardik Pandya met Ananya Pandey and hugged her after winning the India vs Australia match."
What is the truth?: The images are not real. The images have been generated using the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.
Discrepancies in the viral image: On closely looking at the image, we found that Pandya's jersey had garbled text on it. This is a common feature spotted in AI-generated images.
Another discrepancy was the overall glossy and smoothened-out texture of the image.
What did detection tools show?: Team WebQoof passed the images through two detection tools namely — 'Hive Moderation' and 'SightEngine'.
While the first tool showed over 96 percent probability, the second one gave around 99 percent chance of the images being generated using AI.
The tool showed over 96 percent probability of the images being AI-generated ones.
(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)
Conclusion: These images have been generated using AI and are not real visuals.
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