Five-time champions, Mumbai Indians (MI) have had a season to forget, especially the newly appointed skipper of the franchise, Hardik Pandya. MI were officially eliminated from the playoff race after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) dominant win over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Wednesday evening.
The former Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper had made his comeback to MI after winning the title and reaching the finals as the captain of GT in two seasons but was heavily mistreated by the fans. The prime reason for this was the franchise’s decision to replace Rohit Sharma as the skipper.
Rohit had been a fan-favourite in Mumbai because of his captaincy, as the current Indian skipper had led MI to five IPL titles, the joint-highest along with arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The news of him being replaced by Pandya as captain wasn’t received well by the fans and they haven’t shied away from expressing their displeasure towards the decision.
Pandya has been repeatedly jeered by the crowd and has also been trolled excessively over all social media platforms. With MI getting eliminated from the playoff race with just four wins in twelve games, the situation has just gotten worse for Pandya.
Former Australian captain, Aaron Finch though, has felt that the situation could be avoided and Rohit Sharma could have been the one to have calmed the situation over.
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What did Aaron Finch say?
On a podcast with ESPN's Around the Wicket, Aaron Finch expressed his take on the whole MI controversy, stating that Rohit could have helped Pandya with the excessive hate that the all-rounder had been receiving by addressing the fans to calm down in public.
Just the one thing that I would have loved to have seen from Rohit throughout the IPL campaign is to make some kind of public statement because the resentment towards Hardik from the public has been unbelievable – getting booed. So I would have loved seeing Rohit come out and say something publicly. Say 'No, this is part of the plan for Mumbai Indians, and Hardik's got my full support. Just think that would have put things to be a lot more quickly
And it's changed to cheers when he walks out since the World Cup squad has been announced. But for eight games, Hardik was getting booed during a Mumbai Indians game.
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What’s next for Hardik Pandya and MI?
MI will be playing their final two games of the season against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens and LS at Wankhede. Their final game is scheduled on 17th May at the Wankhede, following which the team members will travel to the United States and the West Indies for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.
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Pandya has been selected in the squad as the vice-captain of the Indian contingent, with Rohit being the captain. The all-rounder will have a chance to redeem himself and deliver on all fronts for the team that will be in the hunt for its second T20 World Cup.