‘I was stunned’: England great’s over-the-top performance as IPL crowd booed Cricket News

Hardik Pandya’s appointment as Mumbai Indians captain ahead of IPL 2024 created huge controversy among pundits and fans and the situation did not improve with the five-time champions mired in three defeats in the tournament Losing streak. Hardik ended Rohit Sharma’s ten-year tenure as MI captain after completing his trade from Gujarat Titans and the response from the audience was not good. He was booed in his first three games, including a home match at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, an incident that led commentator Sanjay Manjrekar to ask the crowd to “behave”.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan recently addressed the topic and said it was “shocking” to see cricket-mad Indian fans booing one of their own players.

“The biggest debate is whether Rohit Sharma will eventually return as captain. This has caused a lot of drama in India. The boos… I have to say, the Indian audience just loves cricket. I’ve never heard of them Booing. I certainly never heard them booing one of their own. I heard booing when he played against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad. He left them and joined Mumbai. He Won a championship for them. So I understand that in a pantomime way.”

“But when he played for Mumbai Indians and he went to Hyderabad and was booed and then came to Wankhede and was booed by Mumbai Indians fans, I was shocked. I have never seen India The crowd booed their own crowd. It was amazing,” Warne said on the Prairie Fire Club Podcast alongside former Australia goalkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist pointed out that the controversy and reaction from fans showed Rohit’s popularity and support among the fanbase.

“It shows you Rohit Sharma’s place in the game. The mysterious way it all happened initially, the speed it happened, Mumbai letting Hardik Pandya leave for Gujarat and then Rohit giving up the captaincy , everyone was shocked. It was weird. But that’s the nature of the beast in the IPL. There’s tribalism and intensity within the fan base. It’s hard to replicate that level of intensity elsewhere,” Gilchrist explained.