Amidst the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, a video of players from the USA cricket team enjoying panipuri in India has gone viral on social media.
The video in question shows six members of the USA cricket team, including Captain Monank Patel, having panipuri at a roadside shop. Users shared the photo claiming it’s from Mumbai ahead of USA’s match against India.
An X user named Sonu (@Cricket_live247) posted the video with the claim that the USA Cricketers were enjoying panipuri in Mumbai. The post has garnered over 368,800 views. (Archive)
USA cricketers enjoying pani puri (golgappa) in Mumbai after the warm-up match vs India — pure desi vibes 😋 pic.twitter.com/7URxPFlgnA
— Sonu (@Cricket_live247) February 3, 2026
X handle The Jaipur Dialogues (@Jaipurdialogues), which amplifies misinformation and communal propaganda on a regular basis, posted the video with the same claim. (Archive)
USA cricketers enjoying pani puri (golgappa) in Mumbai after the warm-up match vs India 🤣
— The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) February 3, 2026
So did a user named Jb (@93Yorker). This user linked the video to the controversy over Bangladesh and Pakistan’s participation in the tournament. “While Pakistan and Bangladesh are crying about security arrangements”, USA players were facing no security issues, they remarked.
At the time of this article being written, the post has garnered over 407,200 views. (Archive)
While Pakistan and Bangladesh are crying about security arrangements 🤡
USA cricketers enjoying pani puri (golgappa) in Mumbai on stall without any security issues 👏
— JB (@93Yorker) February 3, 2026
The video also made it to media reports. Outlets such as Asianetnews, Outlook, India Today, Free Press Journal, India Times and Zee news carried it claiming that USA players were seen having panipuri on the streets of Mumbai during the World Cup. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
India Today claimed that Bangladesh cricket board’s concerns over security in India were ‘shot down’ by the act of USA players moving freely in Mumbai and having panipuri.
Fact Check
A simple reverse image search on a few key frames of the video led us to a news report by Bombay Samachar from February 6, 2025. The report featured screenshots from the now-viral video. The headline said “અમેરિકાના ક્રિકેટરોએ આણંદમાં પાણીપુરીની મોજ માણી” (“American cricketers enjoyed Panipuri in Anand”). (Archive)
This indicates that the video is at least a year old and has no connection with the T20 Word Cup 2026.
The USA cricket team was in India in early 2025 as part of a pre-tour training camp before a bilateral series against Oman.
We looked further into the report and found that it had an Instagram post embedded, which was originally shared by account named shreeganeshpanipuri (_shreeganeshpanipuri_). It contained the same video as the viral post and was posted on February 4, 2025. The caption said, “USA CRICKET TEAM VISIT”.
View this post on Instagram
The post by “shreeganeshpanipuri” also included a tagged location of Shri Ganesh Panipuri. We found that the shop was located at Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, Gujarat.
It is also worth noting that US cricket player Aaron Jones is visible in the video. He, however, is not part of the squad that is currently in India to play to T20 World Cup. Jones was dropped from the team after being charged with five breaches of the ICC anticorruption code.
To sum up, the viral video showing USA cricket team members enjoying panipuri is not recent. Neither is it from Mumbai.
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