Former England captain Kevin Pietersen urged Indian fans to stop booing Hardik Pandya ahead of the T20 World Cup. At present, the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain is having a tough time in IPL 2024 with no support from the fans.
Hardik Pandya is having a tough time in IPL 2024. Ever since he took over as the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain ahead of this year’s season, Indian fans have trolled him for replacing Rohit Sharma. The all-rounder was traded from Gujarat Titans (GT) ahead of last year’s mini-auction. The former Gujarat captain led the recently-formed franchise to a maiden title in their inaugural season in 2022, however, his sudden switch to MI didn’t please many. Further, Hardik replacing Rohit — who led MI to five IPL titles — angered many fans.
Moreover, Hardik has made a return to competitive cricket after recovering from an ankle injury sustained during the home ODI World Cup in late 2023. Many Indian fans have slammed him for regularly missing India games but regaining fitness for the IPL. Thus, the 30-year-old has been booed and severely trolled in almost every game for MI this season. After MI’s 20-run loss to Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in match 29 of IPL 2024, former England captain-turned-commentator Kevin Pietersen came to Hardik’s support and urged the Indian fans to stop the booing with T20 World Cup soon to kickoff, in June.
Recalling his own experience, Pietersen told Star Sports, “It’s not just affects you, it affects your family. And that’s the fear for what’s happening for me with Hardik at the moment is that this is going to hurt him for a very, very long time. When he finishes his Indian career, when he finishes playing cricket, it’s still going to hurt him and that’s why something drastic has to be done.”
He further opined, “But it still hurts me absolutely, massively. I mean, you have a look at the reception sometimes that I get in England on occasions, just have a look at my social media feed. I mean, once you have an imprint like that on and the perception is there about the individual, I mean, it’s hard to change perception. I mean I’ve been coming to India for the last 25 years, I have never, ever heard this sort of noise towards one player.”
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KP added, “Something drastic has to be done because this guy is an Indian cricketer and in a month’s time you wanna win a World Cup for India. Are the same people who are booing him now going to boo him when he plays against Pakistan in New York on the ninth or the 10th of June. I don’t think so. So it needs to stop and something needs to happen. Something drastic needs to happen because I don’t like seeing another cricket are going through something that I actually went through.”
Hardik has not made any impact with bat and ball so far in IPL 2024. Clearly, he has been affected by the constant booing and criticism. It will be interesting to see if he bounces back with a T20 WC spot up for grabs. India’s provisional squad is expected to be out by early May. The all-rounder will need to bowl more regularly and produce more impactful knocks with the bat to regain his spot in the national side.
At present, Hardik-led MI are in the eighth spot in the IPL 2024 points table and will next face Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Chandigarh on April 18 (Thursday).
