Pandya booed again as chants of 'Rohit… Rohit' fill Wankhede

There was no letup in crowd hostility toward Mumbai Indians skipper Pandya, with fans booing him as he walked out for the toss in the IPL (Indian Premier League) match against Rajasthan Royals on Monday, even as chants of "Rohit… Rohit" reverberated across Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

However, Pandya did redeem himself somewhat with his quickfire innings of 34 off 19 balls when the time came for him to bat.

The 29-year-old Pandya, who controversially replaced Rohit Sharma as captain of the team in the lead-up to the 2024 edition of the tournament, has already been subjected to the crowd hostility over the franchise's decision regarding the captaincy during the team's previous two away games at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

The taunts in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat, probably took on an added edge since Pandya's somewhat unceremonious departure from Gujarat Titans in favour of Mumbai.

In Mumbai, Pandya was also booed by a section of the crowd before the toss as he was doing the rounds of the field during the pre-match warmup. The flamboyant all-rounder was then booed when his name was announced at the time of the toss, to which Pandya only smiled as loud chants in support of his predecessor filled the venue.

The jeers continued as Pandya began speaking after losing the toss to Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson, forcing presenter and former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar to ask the crowd to "behave".

Right at that moment, Sharma, in his training kit, was meeting his former teammate Harbhajan Singh who was at the field as one of the commentators during the pre-match show.

If that were not enough, Pandya again found himself at the receiving end of the crowd's anger, especially from the Sachin Tendulkar stand, when he walked out to bat with his team reeling at 20/4 in the fourth over.

Additionally, as per officials at the ground, spectators were allowed inside the stadium only after their banners were confiscated owing to an Election Commission directive to Mumbai Police.

However, there was an element of miscommunication as well as misinterpretation, since the directive was about not allowing political banners, but fans complained on social media about all banners being taken away. There were, nevertheless, a few fans who were able to carry their banners inside.

With PTI inputs