Is Maxwell paying tribute to Sachin after his Herculean effort? Find out the facts...

Glenn Maxwell battled through injury to hit a sensational double century against Afghanistan and guide Australia into the World Cup semi-finals. Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was among many who praised and rated Maxwell's effort as the greatest ODI innings ever.

Meanwhile, many social media posts went viral related to this instance, and below is our investigation into a misleading post circulating on social media involving Maxwell and Sachin Tendulkar.

Social Media Posts :

Claiming to be a genuine photo of Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell paying his respects to former Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar after Australia's match versus Afghanistan on November 7, 2023, the image indicates that Maxwell was touching Tendulkar's feet for blessings.

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This image was shared virally, and since Maxwell is married to his long-time girlfriend, Vini Raman, of Indian origins, many believed the incident could have happened, as seen here and here.

We also discovered the image being forwarded many times among WhatsApp users in Sri Lanka.

This is how we took steps to investigate the accuracy of this photograph.

Fact Check :

We checked for main media news reports of Maxwell touching Tendulkar's feet and paying respect, but we couldn't find any prominent media reports, photos, or videos to support this claim.

A few videos and photographs reveal Tendulkar interacting with the Afghanistan squad before the game that day when the little master gave the players a "pep talk."

Tendulkar was sporting a striped t-shirt that resembled the one seen in the widely shared image.

We have noticed several stock images such as these on Getty Images from the discussion between Tendulkar and the Afghan players on 6th of November, day before the epic match against Australia at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai. However, we could not locate a photo of Maxwell and Sachin Tendulkar similar to the one above.

Among these photos, our attention was drawn to one photo, and it was observed that it closely matches the background frame of the viral image withTendulkar and Maxwell.

gettyimages

When we examined the two pictures side-by-side image, we discovered that Tendulkar's polo t-shirt's creases and shadows were identical in both and his hand in the widely shared photo. We also observed that in the original photo Sachin is seen shaking hands with an Afghan player. Furthremore, Sachin's head is slightly edited in the altered image to imply that he's is passing on gratitude to Maxwell, as seen in below comparison.

This proves that in order to create the viral image, Tendulkar's frame from the Getty Images photograph was chopped and added to Maxwell's frame.

We also noticed number of other photos such as this where Maxwell's photos were inserted into frames with Sachin to show that he's touching his feet.

Glenn Maxwell achieved an almost unimaginable feat at the Wankhede Stadium. With his incredible double century in just 128 balls, Maxi helped Australia pull off an incredible victory against Afghanistan. As Ricky Ponting put it, "on no legs," Maxwell dominated and scripted one of the epic comebacks in the history of the game, as the chances of Australia winning the match was less than 1% percent at one point, with more than 200 runs behind with three wickets in hand, being reduced to 91 for 7 wickets while chasing 292. Read more

Conclusion :

Our analysis reveals that the photo of Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell paying his respects to former Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, where Maxwell is seen touching Tendulkar's feet, is a fabricated image.