Hardik Pandya at Wankhede: From Sachin Tendulkar to Virat Kohli, even legends have faced Mumbai fans’ wrath

Mumbai boasts one of the fiercest, most vocal cricket fans in the country, a fact that becomes clearer each time there’s a match at the country’s financial capital. With the Mumbai Indians playing their first home game of the IPL 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday against the Rajasthan Royals, there is a lot of anticipation about how the fans will react to the new era of the franchise with Hardik Pandya taking over the captaincy from old warhorse Rohit Sharma, who has taken the team to five IPL titles.

Hardik has already been booed at two venues in Mumbai first two games of IPL 2024. He bore the brunt of the Gujarat Titans’ fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which was expected since Hardik had left the franchise to move back to Mumbai after leading them to the title in the first season.

However, Hardik also got stick from fans in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Now, coming into the first home game of IPL 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium against Rajasthan Royals, there is a strong sense that Mumbai fans might make their displeasure apparent at Hardik’s elevation to captaincy.

The Wankhede faithful have in the past not even spared legends of the game like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

Sachin was booed by a section of the stadium during the 2005/06 series against England, when he fell after making just one run from 21 balls in a series decider. As Sachin walked back to the stands after edging the ball from a young James Anderson, fans were heard jeering the legend who was playing in his milestone Test match: he went past Kapil Dev’s Indian record of 131 games.

On this day in 2006 something unreal happened. Sachin Tendulkar got booed that too at his home ground after getting out for 1(21). Here is the video of that moment. Michael Atherton talked about it on air (timestamp 00:55) as well. pic.twitter.com/SPAGzEbZhE

— Mainak Sinha🏏📽️ (@cric_archivist) March 19, 2024

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“Sachin Tendulkar’s departure was accompanied by a few boos around the ground, it must be said. Must be the first time Sachin was booed at the Wankhede Stadium,” Michael Atherton said on air.

When Wankhede fans booed Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli also was not spared by the Wankhede fans during an IP 2013 game. The reason was that Kohli was involved in a controversial run-out incident in the game against Mumbai Indians.

Kohli appealed for a run-out involving Mumbai’s Ambati Rayudu, who had grounded his bat before it went in the air when he collided with bowler Vinay Kumar. It was Kohli who had thrown the ball at the stumps and then appealed for a runout.

After he was booed loudly by fans multiple times, an irate Kohli responded in the press conference.

“As far as the crowd is concerned, it has happened to a few players in the past as well. I don’t know why they get so worked up during IPL. I don’t know what is wrong with people in this venue. IPL is not the end of the world. And they forget that the players they are booing for also play for their country,” Kohli had said after the match. “It is only creating hatred among the players. It feels a bit weird because at the end of the day you play for India and you don’t come here to be hated. When I come back and play for India, they are going to cheer for me. It doesn’t work that way. You come to Bangalore and you see how Indian players are appreciated,” he added.

“People appreciate good cricket. I don’t know why people have so much aggression and so much hatred towards other teams in this particular venue. As I said, IPL is not the end of the world,” Kohli said in the post-match media conference.

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