MI supporters boo captain Hardik Pandya
It wasn’t exactly Hardik Pandya’s first time entering the Wankhede Stadium as the Mumbai Indians skipper. The home crowd applauded ‘Rohit Sharma’ at the toss and jeered their captain. The crowd had gathered outside the stadium hours before kickoff, and it was clear they were cheering and chanting for the former captain.
Since MI’s captaincy changed, the fan battles have gotten ugly to the point where, a few days ago, R Ashwin had to ask the supporters to respect Pandya as an Indian cricket player and not make such a big issue out of the change in captaincy.
The crowd’s jeers for Hardik shocked Sanjay Manjrekar at the toss on Monday, and he snapped, telling them to “behave.” However, Rohit Sharma was removed for a first-ball duck, only the fifth time in the IPL, much to the dismay of the Mumbai audience.
Former MI player had fun, former captain celebrates
Not just Rohit Sharma was dropped in favour of a golden duck. Soon enough, Naman Dhir followed him back to the pavilion. For a first-ball duck, too. Trent Boult, the former MI pacer, also dismissed. It was Dewald Brevis’s chance to enter the group after that. Three of the top four batters in an innings have scored ducks only six times in IPL history. Furthermore, everything tumbling off the first ball. In the IPL since 2020, Boult has taken 25 wickets in the opening over of an innings; no other bowler has taken more than eight. This puts Boult’s early threat into context.
