A major uproar from the fans resulted from Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI) ahead of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), after Sharma had moved from Gujarat Titans to the MI.
Pandya was routinely singled out by supporters during the Indian Premier League, receiving jeers each time he took the field.
The ex-Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had to step in during one of the tosses to defuse the atmosphere, telling the Wankhede fans to “behave.”
Star pacer Jasprit Bumrah of the Mumbai Indians and India recently offered his thoughts on the matter, saying that the MI squad was fully behind Pandya during this difficult time.
“You have to take it on your chin. That’s where the inner circle comes in. We, as a team, don’t encourage that, we don’t promote that. We don’t think that’s warranted,” Bumrah told The Indian Express.
“We were with him (Hardik), talking to him, if he needed support. Certain things are beyond your control. If it happened, it happened,” the pacer said.
As India won the 2024 World Cup, according to Bumrah, everything changed. Suddenly, following his game-winning over in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, Pandya, who had been jeered, was being applauded by the fans.
Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller were removed from the game by him during his 3/20 effort, which was vital to India’s victory.
Throughout the course of the T20 World Cup, Pandya took 11 wickets in addition to scoring 144 runs at an amazing strike rate of over 150.
“The narrative just changed, when we won the World Cup. This is part of the journey. It’s us against the world. We will try to give as much support as we can,” Bumrah said.
