Hardik Pandya faced a lot of booing during Mumbai Indians’ first home match of the season at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Monday against Rajasthan Royals.

It reached such proportions that host Sanjay Manjrekar had to request the crowd to “behave” when the Mumbai Indians captain was subjected to anti-Pandya shouts before the toss. Chants of “Rohit, Rohit” rent the air as the two captains, Hardik and Sanju Samson, made their way to the middle.

“Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya; big round of applause, ladies and gentlemen, behave,” Manjrekar said as the fans booed Hardik in what has become a regular
occurrence this season since he replaced Rohit Sharma at the helm.

Mumbai Indians made a disastrous start to their home campaign. To the crowd’s disappointment, Rohit was also dismissed for a first-ball duck, only the fifth time in the IPL.

When a new batter was walking out at 20/4, there were brief cheers before the crowd realised it was Hardik. The boos resumed.

But the Mumbai Indians captain top scored in their total of 125/9 with 34 off 21 balls. He seemed to have won over the home crowd when he smashed a couple of boundaries in the last over of the Powerplay.

“I’ve never seen that before, a captain being booed at the toss. There’s no doubt about the kind of player he is. There’s also no doubt about the kind of leader he is, two finals at Gujarat Titans in two years,” Eoin Morgan said in the pre-match show.

There were also reports of Rohit’s posters being dumped outside the Wankhede and fans being forced to leave them outside before entering
the stadium. However, TV cameras panned in on Rohit posters at the stadium during the telecast.

“As a player, it’s important that you don’t just look to ignore it and pretend it’s not going to happen. You have to mentally steel yourself for that sort of atmosphere,” Stuart Broad said during a news conference.

Hardik has already received a lot of flak at the venues for their first two games. At the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, he was booed by the Gujarat Titans fans, which was more or less expected since he had left the franchise to return to Mumbai Indians after leading them to the title in the first season.