Mumbai: Former Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma asked the Wankhede crowd to stop booing new captain Hardik Pandya during their encounter against Rajasthan Royals on Monday. Pandya has been a constant victim of crowd’s anger ever since he took over from Rohit. In a video that went viral on social media, Rohit, who was fielding on the boundary, was caught urging the fans with folded hands to calm down. Eventually, Mumbai Indians lost the game by six wickets.
Earlier, during the coin toss, Pandya was subject to booing as chants of ‘Rohit… Rohit’ reverberated across the Wankhede Stadium. Pandya was booed by a section of the crowd before the toss when he was doing rounds of the field as a warm-up exercise.
The flamboyant all-rounder was then booed again when his named was announced at the time of the toss, to which Pandya only smiled as loud chants in support of the former Mumbai skipper Rohit filled the venue.
37 year old unfit Rohit Sharma https://t.co/nuDYYMPaqT
— Dev (@time__square) April 1, 2024
The jeers continued as Pandya began speaking after losing the toss to Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson, forcing presenter Sanjay Manjrekar to ask the crowd to “behave”. Right at that moment, Rohit, in his training kit, was meeting his former teammate Harbhajan Singh who was at the field as one of the commentators doing the pre-match show.
If the relentless booing was not enough, Pandya again found himself at the receiving end of crowd’s displeasure, especially from the Sachin Tendulkar stand when he walked out to bat with his team reeling at 20/4 in the fourth over.
But, with the bat in his hand, Pandya managed to get the crowd on his side, quickly turning the jeers into cheers with half a dozen boundaries during a 21-ball 34, which lifted his team from 20/4 to 76/5 in the 10th over, when his entertaining knock came to an end. In fact, the cheers from around the ground were as loud as any when Pandya smashed his first four, a far cry from the evening’s hostile reception.
“The day Hardik wins a game for MI by contributing big, he’ll walk into the Wankhede to a hero’s welcome! Wankhede will soon chant ‘Navratri maa Daandiya, Wankhede maa Pandya’,” said Nish Navalkar, a member of the ‘North Stand Gang’ at the iconic venue.
Additionally, as per officials here, the fans were allowed inside the stadium only after their banners were confiscated due to an election commission directive given to the Mumbai police. However, there was an element of miscommunication as well as misinterpretation since the directive was about not allowing political banners but fans complained on social media about all banners being taken away. There were, nevertheless, a few fans who were able to carry their banners inside.
With PTI Inputs