• Sportzyverse
• Cricket news, IPL 2024
• 03/24/2024
• 0 Comments

Hardik Pandya becomes the first cricketer in the history of IPL to receive a hostile reaction from former fans.

Players being booed by the fans of their former team is a very common occurrence in football. Since the transfer culture is very prevalent in that sport, players often end up playing against their former teams and getting booed by angry fans.

However, this was the first time that something of that sort had happened in cricket, especially in the IPL. Although transfers have occurred in the past, none are as controversial as Hardik Pandya’s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians.

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Hardik Pandya was the first player to captain the Gujarat Titans in their debut season in 2022. He also took them to their maiden title glory in the same season. Then, in 2023, he took them to yet another final, only this time to come up second against an MS Dhoni-led CSK side.

But he would not have expected to be welcomed by the GT fans with open arms. The fans’ angst was palpable when Pandya was introduced as the captain of Mumbai Indians during the toss. The home fans booed the former GT captain, and the echo of the noise was defensible in the Narendra Modi stadium, which has a capacity of over 100,000.

The act was repeated several times throughout the game. One such occasion was when Pandya made a diving stop during the sixth over of the game. At this particular juncture, the fans were quick to showcase their displeasure with Pandya.

Things have not been easy for Hardik Pandya in the past few months, especially after he made the move back to Mumbai Indians. He was named captain of the side after the move, which also displeased many MI fans. They were unhappy that Rohit Sharma, their talismanic captain, was not given due credit for the captaincy being handed over to Pandya.

Mumbai Indians have not been the same in the last three years. Since 2020, they have not managed to win a single IPL title. They will be looking to change their fortunes this season under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya.