Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya was booed at the franchise’s homeground Wankhede Stadium at the coin toss. After getting booed by Ahmedabad and Hyderabad crowd, he got booed by the Mumbai crowd as they protested the appointment of Hardik as captain replacing Rohit Sharma. But broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar came to Hardik’s rescue and asked the crowd to ‘behave’ and applaud him instead of booeing him.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to field first. As soon as Hardik took the mic to talk to the broadcaster, booes echoed at the iconic Wankhede Stadium.
Hardik, however, chose to ignore the crowd’s reaction and maintained a smile on his face.
“We were planning to bowl first. It's quite exciting to be a part of this game. We always look forward to the future, need to follow the process. Looking forward to playing a brand of cricket everyone enjoys. Playing the same team,” the 30-year-old said after losing the toss.
Ashwin backed Pandya too
Last week, RR off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin urged to put a stop to the 'fan wars'.
“Have you seen this happen in any other country? Have you seen Joe Root and Zak Crawley fans fight? Or have you seen Joe Root and Jos Buttler fans fight? It’s crazy. Have you seen Steve Smith and Pat Cummins fans fight in Australia?” Ashwin said responding to a query on his YouTube channel.
“I’ve said this many times. This is cricket. This is a cinema culture. I know there are things like marketing, positioning and branding. I don’t deny it. I don’t believe in all this on my side but it’s not wrong to indulge either,” he said.
“Fan wars should never go in this ugly a route. One should remember which country these players represent- our country. So then what warrants a cricketer getting booed? “I don’t understand. If you don’t like a player and boo a player, why should a team come out to issue a clarification? We act like this has not happened before.”
Ashwin also gave examples of legendary Indian players Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid playing under the leadership of MS Dhoni.
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