The Mumbai Indians captaincy is one subject that is dominating discussions in the IPL 2024. After Hardik Pandya replaced Rohit Sharma, there has been much debate over whether the decision was right or not. On top of that, the start of IPL 2024, has been nothing short of disastrous for Mumbai Indians. With three straight losses, MI find themselves at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table. Hardik Pandya has been booed quite a lot too during matches, even at the Wankhede Stadium, which is MI’s home ground.
After MI’s recent loss against RR, former Indian cricket team batter Manoj Towary said that Pandya may be sacked before the side’s next game. To which, Virender Sehwag made an interesting comment.
“This statement about, I think this has been made in haste. This team had lost five successive matches under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy too; 5-0. Then, they were champions (lost in the playoffs). So, they will be patient with Hardik, too. These are stats. They have been 0-3 down, too. But if this extends beyond that too, it might test the team management’s patience,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“Two-three franchises have done that. Punjab did that, Chennai did that when they gave the captaincy to Jadeja, and then Dhoni took over the captaincy again. But it happened midway through the season. I don’t think MI will think about the captaincy switch right now. You can’t change a captain after three games; that doesn’t send the right message to the team, too. But after seven games, when the season is right in the middle, they can take a call based on how the performance has been.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan recently spoke about the topic and said that it was “staggering” to see the cricket-crazy Indian fanbase booing one of their own players.
“The big debate is whether Rohit Sharma will end up back as captain. That has caused a lot of drama here in India. The booing… I have to say, the Indian crowd just loves cricket. I have never heard them boo. I’ve certainly never heard them boo one of their own. I get the booing when he played at (Ahmedabad) against the Gujarat Titans. He’s left them and joined Mumbai. He took them to a title. So I get that in a pantomime kind of way.”
“But for him to go to Hyderabad and get booed and then come to Wankhede and get booed by the Mumbai Indians fans while he is playing for them, I’m staggered by it. I have never seen the Indian crowd boo one of their own. It’s remarkable,” Vaughan said on the Club Prairie Fire podcast with former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.
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