Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya is once again facing brickbats after he addressed his first press conference after taking over the top job from Rohit Sharma.
Ahead of the new season of the Indian Premier League, Pandya and new MI coach Mark Boucher were grilled by journalists on the change in leadership and the alleged "captaincy clause" in his contract even as the franchise officials tried their best to shield the duo from such tough questions.
Rohit fans troll Pandya & Boucher
Pandya's silence on such issues backfired on the entire MI management and the player as well. Netizens and hardcore Rohit fans took to social media to troll the all-rounder and coach Boucher, sharing clips of their reactions to the questions thrown at them by the journalists.
The Free Press Journal was the first organisation which was stopped from asking about the captaincy clause in Pandya's contract when he re-signed for MI.
Press conference fiasco
Several other reporters were then asked to change their questions and not ask anything related to MI replacing Rohit with Pandya as skipper.
Pandya however, remained unfazed about the questions and kept his calm throughout the presser. The same however, could not be said about MI's PR team.
X users are still trolling the cricketer and the South African with #RIPHardikPandya being one of the top trends on the platform on Tuesday.
Pandya's Mumbai Indians will open their IPL 2024 campaign against his previous franchise, Gujarat Titans, on March 24 at the Wankhede Stadium. Pandya led GT to the title triumph in their maiden IPL season in 2022 and spent another season there before deciding to return to MI.
