Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has been the target of fans ever since he took over the reins of captaincy from Rohit Sharma. The franchise decided to drop five-time champion Rohit Sharma ahead of IPL 2024 and handed over the responsibility to Pandya, who was traded to Gujarat Titans.
The change of leadership did not go down well with the fans and they started criticizing Pandya harshly. When the MI captain walked out for the toss against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium, he was widely criticized. Sanjay Manjrekar, who was there with Pandya for the toss, asked the Wankhede crowd to ‘behave’ as they welcomed Hardik with a loud noise.
Sanjay Manjrekar said, “Two captains with me – Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya, thunderous applause, ladies and gentlemen, good behaviour.”
As soon as the incident happened, Joffta Archer’s 10-year-old tweet went viral on social media. For those unaware, Jofra Archer’s historical tweets often go viral during major cricket events.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya managed to turn the anger into joy for a while when he tried to bring MI back in the match against Rajasthan Royals. Trent Boult surprised the host team at the beginning of the game. When Hardik came to the crease, the score of Mumbai Indians was 20-4. The MI captain launched a ferocious counter-attack on RR and got the long-awaited boost by scoring 34 runs in 21 balls. However, Pandya could not last long and was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal. MI could only score 125-9 in 20 overs and RR won by six wickets thanks to a half-century from Riyan Parag. This was MI’s third consecutive defeat in as many games, having previously lost to GT and SRH.
Hardik Pandya’s captaincy under question!
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya has made some strange captaincy calls in IPL 2024 so far. In the first game, he sent Tim David ahead of himself when MI were heading towards victory. David’s promotion backfired as MI lost momentum and suffered close defeats.
In the second game, he was heavily criticized for restricting Japrit Bumrah for too long. Being the main bowler, it was expected that Bumrah would start but Pandya started with Mafaka and himself. Bumrah was brought in in the fourth over but was removed from the attack after one over. He was brought in again in the 13th over but SRH had scored 173 runs by then.