Even as a veterans’ cricket match scheduled on Sunday between India and Pakistan in the World Championship of Legends (WCL) was cancelled, images of actor Ajay Devgn engaged in a seemingly light-hearted conversation with former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi went viral on social media with the Bollywood actor facing a lot of flak. Devgn is one of the main promoters of the tournament. The match was cancelled in view of “current geopolitical situation and prevailing tensions between India and Pakistan”.
X handle Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) posted the picture on July 20, 2025, slamming Devgn for talking to “terrorist Shahid Afridi”. (Archive)
You can’t trust on any Bollywood celebrities, Now Ajay Devgan is talking with Pakistani terrorist Shahid Afridi.
Any words for these celebrities! pic.twitter.com/QACPFZ6t7g
— Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) July 20, 2025
The post has garnered over 2 Lakh views.
Another verified user, Roshan Rai, shared the same set of photos, and wondered why ‘sanghis’ were silent on “IT Cell Fav Ajay Devgan enjoying” with Afridi.
Devesh Pandey (@iamdevvoffical), who claims to be a journalist, shared the images on X and called for boycotting Devgn’s new movie.
Several other X-users have made similar claims while sharing the images. A few of them can be seen in the gallery below. Many of them are verified users.
Fact Check
A simple keyword search on X led us to several posts from July 2024.
X handle Saif Ali Moon, for example, uploaded one of the now-viral images on July 6, 2024 and used #WCL2024 in the caption.
ajay devgn is meeting shahid khan afridi in Birmingham England before the start of play between pak vs ind #WCL2024 #WCL #PakistanCricket #PakvsInd #PAKCvsINDC #INDCvsPAKC pic.twitter.com/mazJoSJGVC
— SAIF ALI MOON 🧢 (@cric_info_saif) July 6, 2024
To corroborate this further, we looked for news reports from July 2024 covering the match. We found several reports confirming the brief interaction between Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi before the India-Pakistan match in WCL 2024.
The News International, a Pakistani media outlet, reported on July 7, 2024, that videos and pictures of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi having a pleasant conversation prior to the match at Edgbaston Stadium were heavily shared on social media. Fans had shown excitement over a “rare occurrence” of camaraderie between prominent figures of “neighbouring countries in one frame”.
The report has a video embedded in it, which has the same visuals that are currently viral. A comparison is shown below for a better understanding.
On July 6, 2024, ANI also reported that Ajay Devgn had been seen having a brief interaction with former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi.
To sum up, the images of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi that are currently viral on social media date back to July 2024, during the WCL match in Birmingham, England, between India and Pakistan.
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