On January 13, 2021, Mohammad Azharuddeen from Kerala's Kasargod district scored a century in 37 balls against Mumbai in the domestic T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. It was the third-fastest T20 century by an Indian after Rishabh Pant (32 balls) and Rohit Sharma (35 balls).

In context to this, a screenshot of a purported news article published by "The News Minute" is getting viral on social media with a communal headline saying “Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai” the article has Azharuddeen’s picture below the headline.

A Facebook user name The Ghatiya Show shares a screenshot of the news article with the caption "If that's not Islamophobic I don't know what is. I condemn this headline. Disgusting!!"

Fact Check 

In our investigation, we found that the viral screenshot is morphed. The actual article was published by “The News Minute” with the headline “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored a century in 37 balls wins hearts”.

After using relevant keywords on Google we found an article published on January 14, 2021. The article was titled, "Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored a century in 37 balls wins hearts." We also notice that the font used in the morphed screenshot is different from the font in the original articles.

We also compared both the viral image with the original image and found that both had the same date, time, and thumbnail image on it. The only difference is of the headline

Editor-in-chief of “The News Minute”, Dhanya Rajendran, has also clarified on Twitter that the screenshot is fake. She wrote, “Extremely disappointed with people who made a fake screenshot, even more, disappointed with journalists here spreading it. This was our original headline. If nothing else, have some trust that we would not have such a headline"

Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) has decided to reward opening batsman Mohammed Azharuddeen after he scored a 37-ball century against Mumbai in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

In conclusion, a viral screenshot of a news article with a communal headline saying “Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai” is morphed and Fake. The original headline published by “The News Minute” was “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored a century in 37 balls wins hearts”.