At a press conference on August 21, Indian captain Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar named the squad for the Asia Cup. For about half an hour, they took questions from the media, and explained the various selections and omissions.

A quote, supposedly by Agarkar during the press conference, has been doing the rounds since that day. According to it, when asked about what would be India’s plans for Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, Agarkar responded, “Virat Kohli will take care of them.”

Reporter – “Any plan for Harris rauf and Shaheen”

Ajit Agarkar – Virat Kohli will take care of them (laughs) pic.twitter.com/MUSdlxOVLK

— Kevin (@imkevin149) August 21, 2023

This has been widely picked and circulated across social media channels and cricket publications – to an extent that it reached Pakistan vice-captain Shadab Khan, who was just part of a 3-0 series whitewash against Afghanistan in Sri Lanka.

After Pakistan’s victory in the third and final ODI against Afghanistan, in Colombo, Shadab was asked about his views on the fake Agarkar quote. Shadab responded: “Dekhiye, ye depend karta hai on a day. Main ya koi aur, ya unki taraf se koi aisa bol de, to bolne se kuch nahi hota, kuch change nahi hota. Jab match hoga, match mein jo cheezein nazar ayengi, asal cheez wahi hoti hai.”

“(See, it depends on the [match] day. It doesn’t matter if I or someone from their side says something like this. It changes nothing. Whatever happens on the match day, is what actually matters).”

Shadab was unaware of the fact that the quote was fake, and that Agarkar had said no such thing with regard to Kohli handling Shaheen and Rauf during his press conference.

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There have been some recent instances of cricketers calling out fake quotes attributed to their names. Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan middle-order batter, recently called out a fanfor posting a fake “whenever we have a match against India, it feels like we are playing against street children” quote.

Contrary to the off-the-field tensions, India-Pakistan on-field action has always been in good spirit in the last few years and of high quality. They are all set to face each other in the Asia Cup on September 2, with a possibility of playing three matches over the next three weekends.