Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya is going through the toughest phase of his career. Taking over the leadership of the five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 champion, replacing Rohit Sharma, has not brought him good luck.
Hardik Pandya has become India’s most hated cricketer over the course of the last few weeks. The fans in the stadiums have not welcomed him at all as the captain of the Mumbai Indians. The all-rounder does not receive the support of the public and all he receives are boos from the spectators every time he appears on the screen.
This is because Hardik Pandya was traded from the Gujarat Titans to the Mumbai Indians and the all-rounder had maintained the condition of taking over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma as part of the trade. This has not gone down well with many fans and pundits as they treated it with “Rohit Rohit” chants during the games.
Hardik Pandya received boos from the Ahmedabad and Hyderabad crowd and they became even louder when Mumbai Indians played the match at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday (April 1). The off-roader was not well received even by the local public.
Apart from the treatment from the fans, Hardik Pandya has failed to deliver as either captain or player of the Mumbai Indians. Under his leadership, the franchise has lost all three games he has played so far. And he too has not managed to perform well with bat and ball in the ongoing IPL 2024.
After Mumbai Indians lost the game against Rajasthan Royals by a margin of 6 wickets, former franchise player Ambati Rayudu was seen consoling Hardik Pandya. The cricketer-turned-commentator approached the MI captain and encouraged Pandya, who looked dejected.
Ambati Rayudu shared a pep talk with Hardik Pandya for a few minutes. The video was posted by Mumbai Indians on their official Twitter account. Here is the video:
? . 💙#MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians | @hardikpandya7 pic.twitter.com/k3YSlofEdV
– Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 2, 2024
We need to be a little more disciplined – Hardik Pandya after Mumbai’s loss to Rajasthan
Mumbai Indians had a torrid outing in the match against Rajasthan Royals. When asked to bat, they were reeling at 20/4. A vital contribution from Hardik Pandya (34) and Tilak Varma (32) propelled them to a total of 125 runs. With the ball, they took some early wickets but couldn’t defend because they didn’t have much in the bank.
Hardik Pandya spoke about the tough night his team had and stated that they, as a group, believe in themselves. He believes the team needs to be more disciplined going forward. He explained:
“Yes, it was a tough night, we didn’t start the way we wanted to start. “I wanted to fight back, we were in a decent position to get to 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back into the game, I needed to do a lot more.”
“It’s about doing the right things, the (right) results sometimes happen, sometimes they don’t. “As a group we believe we can do much better, but we need to be a little more disciplined and show a lot more courage.”
Mumbai Indians will be next in action when they take on the Delhi Capitals in their next game. The match between the two teams will take place on Sunday (April 7) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.