The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has not been kind to Mumbai Indians as the five-time IPL winners are yet to win a match this year and currently sit at the bottom of the league.
Newly-appointed skipper Hardik Pandya is under immense pressure from all corners as his side looks to make a strong comeback. He is also fulfilling the shoes of Rohit Sharma, who led the Mumbai side to five league titles.
Even though they have lost three out of three matches this season, MI are known to bounce back from the toughest of situations as in 2015, they lost the first four matches before going all the way to win the title.
MI’s next encounter is against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday and Pandya will look to any advantage in the desperate times, one of which is the return of Suryakumar Yadav, who is widely considered one of the best batters of the shorter format.
It is not just about defeats, MI have been struggling to pick rhythm with the bat as in three matches so far, there has been only one fifty, which Tilak Varma scored against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Apart from struggles with the bat, their skipper, Hardik Panyda, has been booed on three different venues so far and has to face a hostile crowd wherever he goes.
Although that will not be the case on Sunday as MI will be playing in front of their home crowd, some hostility can still be expected as a great part of MI’s fanbase is not happy with Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain.
MI’s next opponent, Delhi Capitals’ director of cricket also shared his two cents on this issue saying that booing Pandya is not correct by any means.
"I don't think they (the crowd) should boo Hardik. It's not correct," Sourav Ganguly, DC’s director of cricket, said on Saturday.
“The franchisee has appointed him captain. That's what happens in sports. Whether you captain India or a state or your franchise. Obviously, with Rohit Sharma, he's a different class. His performance for this franchise, and his performance for India has been at a different level, as captain and as a player. But then it's not Hardik's fault that he's been appointed captain. All of us need to understand that.”