The all-rounder was jeered at every venue after he was handed captaincy by the Mumbai Indians, signaling a controversial end to Rohit Sharma’s popular and successful tenure at the helm. Manjrekar, while conducting the toss at Wankhede told the crowd to behave after they were booing the newly appointed captain. However, this only led to a meme-fest by the insensitive social media trolls.
Pandya played a major part in India’s second T20 World Cup trophy with 144 runs and 11 wickets, and Manjrekar now stands vindicated.
“What a turnaround for Hardik Pandya. In IPL, there were people jeering him and booing him and I told them to behave because this is a big-stage player,” Manjrekar told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
The former Indian player always knew that Pandya would hold his nerve in pressure situations and that’s exactly what he did by bringing his team back into the game with the wicket of the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen and then closed out the game with a fantastic final over.
“We have seen that umpteen times, wickets of Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and right at the end, Rabada, so he was a champion and no surprise, to see him flourish on the big stage,” Manjrekar said.
“Even in that semifinal against England, he came in and gave India some hope with 60 off 33. So that’s what he is all about. You felt safe when he came to bowl in the last over, he was not going to lose his nerves, he was going to bowl sensibly,” he added.
