A video of former India captain Virat Kohli criticising Shubman Gill has surfaced on social media platform X. In the short clip, Kohli could be heard hyping himself up at the expense of Shubman Gill. However, after closely investigating the viral video, the experts concluded that the short clip is created by compiling two different videos, thus rendering it fake.
There are some glitches in the video, and it is clear that Virat Kohli’s voice has been recreated with the use of AI. The deepfake voice of Virat Kohli can be heard saying, “When we came back from Australia, I figured out what it takes to succeed at the highest level. I have been watching Gill closely. He is talented, no doubt. But there’s a big gap between showing promise and becoming a legend. Gill’s technique is solid, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
The deepfake video falsely quotes the former India skipper, “People talk about the next Virat Kohli, but let me be clear, there’s only one Virat Kohli. I have faced the toughest bowlers, delivered in the most intense situations, and done it consistently for over a decade. You can’t replicate that with just a few good innings.”
Watch the deepfake video of Virat Kohli here:
Shubman Gill made his international during Virat Kohli’s captaincy reign
The U19 World Cup 2018 winner, Shubman Gill, made his international debut in an ODI game against New Zealand in 2019 Back then, Virat Kohli, who had played a few ODIs in the series against New Zealand on tour, was rested for the match. So far, the right-hander, Gill has played 47 ODIs, scoring 2328 runs in total.
The Punjab-born cricketer had to wait till the end of 2020 to make his Test debut. Once again, Kohli had left the rest of the BGT Test series against Australia before Gill’s debut. In the longest format, Gill has scored 1492 runs in 25 matches. By the time Gill made his T20I debut, Rohit Sharma became India’s full-time captain.