Australian batter Steve Smith on Friday urged fans to support the under-fire Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya who has been consistently booed by the crowd in this season of the Indian Premier League. (More Cricket News | Full Coverage)
Pandya has been facing the ire of the fans since joining Mumbai Indians as captain from Gujarat Titans ahead of this season. He replaced Rohit Sharma as skipper who had led the Mumbai franchise to five IPL titles.
Steve Smith who is in India doing commentary for Star Sports told news agency PTI that such behaviour from the crowd was unfortunate and he would love to see them come out in support of Pandya.
"Obviously, there was that (booing) going on in the first two games. It sort of becomes a bit of a thing, if that makes sense. But, it was unfortunate, I think. I'd love to see them supporting Hardik."
Smith also said that the decision of taking captaincy away from Sharma has annoyed some fans.
"Obviously, there's a lot of huge Rohit fans out there. A lot of people are a bit annoyed that he's not the captain of the side. But, everyone needs to let go of that and support Hardik," Smith said.
"He's a wonderful player. He had a lot of success at Gujarat (Titans). He's back (as) captain of the side at Mumbai now. The senior players need to help him out," the former Australian skipper added.
Pandya was booed by crowd in the first match against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad and then again faced ire when MI returned to play at their home ground at the Wankhede Stadium against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In Mumbai, the crowd also chanted Rohit Sharma's name.
MI led by Hardik Pandya have failed to register single victory in their first three games and the skipper himself has been under scanner for his captaincy as well as his batting.
