Unfortunately for Hardik Pandya, the MI captain was booed again by home fans in Mumbai at the toss on Monday against Rajasthan Royals.
Chants of Rohit Sharma could be heard clearly when Pandya was speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar after he lost the toss.
Manjrekar in fact, had to ask the crowd to "behave" just before Samson flipped the coin as fans had started to boo Pandya.
Pandya has been facing flak in IPL 2024 ever since MI announced him as the replacement for Rohit as the team captain ahead of this season.
Boos and jeers all around India
The 33-year-old all-rounder was booed in Ahmedabad by Gujarat Titans fans for ditching the franchise for MI and then he was again booed at the neutral venue in Hyderabad where his team suffered its second successive defeat against SRH.
A hostile reception was expected at the Wankhede where Rohit grew up playing all his cricket. Fans therefore, let their displeasure know before Manjrekar had to intervene but in vain.
The crowd kept booing Pandya throughout his speech at the toss, which Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson won and elected to bowl first in Match 14 of IPL 2024.
MI took the unpopular decision of removing Rohit from the captaincy despite him winning a record 5 titles for the franchise in the IPL.
Pandya, who left GT after two seasons, led the franchise to victory in their maiden season in IPL 2022 and reached the final a year later before coming back to Mumbai.
MI yet to register a win this season
MI will play with the same team for this game but RR have had to make a forced change as Sandeep Sharma picked up an injury. Nandre Burger comes in as replacement for Sharma in RR's playing XI.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Kwena Maphaka
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal
