"Have you seen Joe Root and Jos Buttler fans fight?" - R Ashwin bats for Hardik Pandya amid brutal trolling of Mumbai Indians captain
Team India off-spinner and Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has backed Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya amid the player facing the ire of fans since taking over as captain from Rohit Sharma. Ashwin has urged fans to stop the ugly behavior, saying that such things should never take place.
Pandya was booed by fans during Mumbai Indians' IPL 2024 opener against his former franchise Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The treatment from the crowd was not too dissimilar when MI faced the SunRisers in Hyderabad.
During an interactin on his YouTube channel, Ashwin threw his weight behind Pandya when a fan asked whether it's time for Mumbai Indians to issue a statement, admitting that they made a poor transfer.
"Neither has any role to play. Neither the franchise not the player has a role to play in this at all. I think the responsibility and the onus lies on the fans," Ashwin explained.
“Have you seen this happen in any other country? Have you seen Joe Root and Zak Crawley fans fight? Or have you seen Joe Root and Jos Buttler fans fight? It’s crazy. Have you seen Steve Smith and Pat Cummins fans fight in Australia?” he went on to add.
He continued:
“I’ve said this many times. This is cricket. This is a cinema culture. I know there are things like marketing, positioning and branding. I don’t deny it. I don’t believe in all this on my side but it’s not wrong to indulge either."
Making an appeal to cricket fans, Ashwin said that there is no reason for a player to get booed. He also opined that there's no need for Mumbai Indians to issue a clarification over the matter.
“Fan wars should never go in this ugly a route. One should remember which country these players represent - our country. So then what warrants a cricketer getting booed?
“I don’t understand. If you don’t like a player and boo a player, why should a team come out to issue a clarification? We act like this has not happened before,” the senior off-spinner commented.
Pandya will next be seen in action when Mumbai Indians take on Rajasthan Royals on their home ground at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Monday, April 1.
Hardik Pandya's performance in IPL 2024 so far
Pandya has had a disappointing start to his stint as Mumbai Indians captain in IPL 2024. MI went down to Gujarat Titans by six runs in their first game of the season in Ahmedabad before losing to SRH by 31 runs in Hyderabad.
The all-rounder went wicketless against GT and registered figures of 1-46 against Hyderabad. He has scored 11 and 24 in the two games.