Former Australian great Adam Gilchrist gave his thoughts on the crowd booing Hardik Pandya amid the captaincy change in the IPL 2024.
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Gilchrist on fans booing Pandya
Gilchrist said the booing directed at Pandya only shows the immense popularity and fanfare of the former Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma.
Pandya, 30, took over the captaincy role from Sharma upon arriving in MI from Gujarat Titans.
However, MI have lost all three of their games in the ongoing IPL 2024 under Pandya’s leadership.
The former wicket-keeper batter mentioned that the fans’ reaction towards the MI skipper actually shows their “tribalism and intensity”.
“It shows you the status that Rohit Sharma has in the game there. The mysterious manner with which it all played out initially, the pace with which it happened,” Gilchrist said on Club Prairie Fire podcast.
“Everyone was stunned with Mumbai getting Hardik Pandya away from Gujarat and then Rohit relinquishing captaincy. It’s an odd one. But this is the nature of the beast in the IPL. The tribalism and intensity within fan bases. It’s hard to replicate anywhere else with that level of intensity,”
Gilchrist, 52, recalled a similar incident where he was booed by Australian fans at home.
He assumed the captaincy role from wicket-keeper Ian Healy in the Australia Test squad back in 1999, and the reaction from the fans were hostile when he made his ODI debut.
“I got hammered on to the field. And all the way off. So I know what (Hardik) feels like, I will just get on to Hardik, and I will get him through…I am the boo whisperer, I know how to get inside their minds and just get them through. I will get on to Hardik, I have sent that message to MS, I will keep you posted on that and I will get him on and we can get inside his mind and help him, dig out of the trouble they are in,” he said.
