It wasn't a pleasant homecoming to Mumbai for Hardik Pandya as the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium booed the new Mumbai Indians skipper when he came out for the toss against the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024.
Surprisingly, Sanjay Manjrekar, who was introducing the two captains, asked the crowd to 'behave' before the coin went up.
It was Mumbai's first home game of IPL 2024 and it was the first time since the 2013 edition, that Rohit Sharma wasn't MI's skipper.
Hardik has been facing fans' anger ever since the Mumbai Indians appointed him as their new skipper and removed local lad Rohit Sharma.
Hardik also had an unexpected outing in Ahmedabad as the crowd booed the former Gujarat Titans' skipper during GT's game vs the Mumbai Indians.
A similar thing happened in Hyderabad where Hardik faced fans' wrath as they chanted slogans against the all-rounder.
Hardik was the captain of the Gujarat Titans in the last couple of years and also led them to title win in 2022. GT finished as the runners up last year but Hardik decided to move back to Mumbai ahead of IPL 2024 player auction.
Surprisingly, MI removed Rohit Sharma as their skipper skipper and handed over the captaincy duties to Hardik as soon as the trading window closed.