India

Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravi Ashwin has lambasted the fans for booing Mumbai Indians' newly-appointed skipper Hardik Pandya. Notably, the fans in the stadium have been ruthless to Pandya after he replaced Rohit as Mumbai skipper ahead of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season. MI have played their two games in Ahmedabad & Hyderabad and fans at both places have booed Pandya mercilessly.

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“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?” said Ashwin while criticising the incidents.

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“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,” he said.

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“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,” Ashwin added.

Mumbai, meanwhile, haven't gotten an ideal start of the season. They have lost both their games so far, that is, against Gujarat Titans and SunRisers Hyderabad.

Against Gujarat, Pandya's previous team, Mumbai failed to chase a modest total of 169 runs while against SRH they fell short of 31 runs in a record chase of 278. Pandya was criticised heavily for scoring 24 off 20 balls against SRH.

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Mumbai next play against Rajasthan Royals on April 1 at their home ground Mumbai.