Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hits out at fans for the outrage on social media directed at MI skipper Hardik Pandya. The new Mumbai Indians skipper has been in the eye of the storm ever since he replaced Rohit Sharma as the franchise’s skipper back in late 2023. The star all-rounder has been booed, both on field and off field, with fans and critics trading guns at MI’s new skipper.
Why Hardik Pandya shouldn’t be booed? Ashwin explains
In the latest video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin explains why Hardik should not be booed by fans. He cites the cases of Sourav Ganguly playing under Sachin Tendulkar, the two playing under Rahul Dravid and further all three of them playing under MS Dhoni.
“The state of fan wars at present is very ugly. Why should a cricketer be booed? I don’t understand. Why should the team explain if you don’t like the player and boo them? Hasn’t this happened before? Sourav Ganguly played under Sachin Tendulkar, these two have played under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. These three have played under Anil Kumble & all of them played under MS Dhoni. When they were under Dhoni, these players were cricket giants. We need to get our act together,” Ashwin says.
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“There is a war between fans of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Where are these legends from? They are all Indian team legends. Have you seen fans in any other country fighting like this? It’s crazy. This is cricket. I’ll repeat it again, this is complete cinema culture,” Ashwin adds.
Hardik Pandya – the captain
Pandya has borne the brunt of the fans since the end of 2023 when he was traded to MI from GT and replaced Rohit Sharma as the former’s skipper. It is pertinent to note that Hardik’s credentials – both as a player and skipper – are exemplary.
HP was named India’s T20I captain, taking over from Rohit Sharma only to be injured during the ODI World Cup and exiting the scheme of things. Prior to this, Pandya led GT to their maiden title win in their very first year of the tournament in 2022. In the following year, the side finished as the runner-ups as they lost to CSK in IPL 2023 final.
| Matches | Won | Lost | No Result | Win % |
| 32 | 22 | 10 | 0 | 68.97% |
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