Newly-appointed Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya being booed by the team’s own fans was one of the lows of the IPL 2024. Such was the heckling that, during the toss at the Mumbai Indians-Rajasthan Royals match, TV presenter and former cricket Sanjay Manjrekar had to ask the crowd to “behave”.
It was a disastrous IPL campaign, too, for the club, ending up at the bottom of the points table having lost 10 matches and winning only four.
Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma, who has a cult following, as the captain, caused a huge backlash from the Mumbai Indians fans. Having led MI to a record five titles, Sharma was seemingly snubbed by the team management in favour of Pandya, who had led the new franchise Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in 2022 and runners-up place next year, before returning to Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024.
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Pandya was under pressure throughout the tournament, both as a captain and a player. But, Jasprit Bumrah has now revealed that the Mumbai Indians team stood behind him during that tough period.
"You have to take it on your chin,” the pacer told The Indian Express. “That’s where the inner circle comes in. We, as a team, don’t encourage that, we don’t promote that. We don’t think that’s warranted.
“We were with him (Hardik), talking to him, if he needed support. Certain things are beyond your control. If it happened, it happened,” Bumrah said.
But India’s victorious campaign at the 2024 T20 World Cup changed everything, he said. With Pandya scoring 144 runs at a strike rate of over 150 and clinching 11 wickets, which included the match-winning 3/20 in the final against South Africa, the jeers turned into cheers.
"The narrative just changed, when we won the World Cup. This is part of the journey. It’s us against the world. We will try to give as much support as we can," Bumrah said.