Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has revealed the moment he realised an impromptu photo shoot on the streets of New York was about to go viral. 

Stoinis and his partner Sarah Czarnuch enjoyed a brief American holiday after his stint playing for the San Francisco Unicorns in Major League Cricket, and were spotted by photographer David Guerrero.

Guerrero, whose Instagram account @dgphotoholic has more than a million followers, did not know who Stoinis was, and posted the results of his shoot with a "beautiful Australian couple".

"We stumbled across a photographer who wanted to take a few photos, and I think he thought it was going to be a bit of fun with a couple that looked to be enjoying themselves in New York," Stoinis told ABC Sport.

"We thought 'oh, this is a nice guy who wants to take some photos for his Instagram account'. I'm not really thinking too much of it, thinking it'll be a bit of fun.

"You know, no-one's really going to see this."

Once the shots were released, cricket fans all over the world quickly recognised Stoinis.

"After he took the photos, he showed us his page and then we saw that he had a million followers," Stoinis said.

"That blew up pretty quickly, and I think I got away with it being quite positive."

The shots were shared by Stoinis's IPL team Lucknow Super Giants, and again by Guerrero once he found out who he had actually snapped.

"I've copped a lot from my mates, don't worry. I get my fair share of criticism on social media, that I welcome," Stoinis said.

"But I think it was pretty funny on the whole."