A video on social media where fans can be seen dumping placards and posters of Rohit Sharma, has stirred the pot in IPL 2024.
Ahead of Mumbai Indians’ first home game of IPL 2024, shocking visuals of Rohit Sharma posters getting dumped outside the Wankhede Stadium have emerged. In a clip going viral, fans, before entering the stadium, can be seen leaving their posters and placards outside the venue, with users on X claiming they aren’t allowed to carry their messages in. The development takes place shortly after reports had come out that anyone booing Hardik Pandya will be escorted out of the stadium, even though a source close to the Mumbai Cricket Associated denied them.
Plenty of fan-made Rohit Sharma posters were left behind as the public entered the Wankhede Stadium. (Screengrab)
Hardik has been welcomed with a clattering of boos in MI’s first two away games – in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad – both of which ended in defeats. And with the captain now playing his first game on home ground, louder reactions await. However, the activity outside the stadium just before the start of the match tells a different story altogether.
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It’s no rocket science as to what fans, especially the Mumbai crowd, feel about Hardik as captain of the five-time champions. It was in December of last year that Hardik officially replaced Rohit as captain of the Mumbai Indians but even three months later, the public is yet to warm up to him. The only way that can happen perhaps is Hardik stepping up to the challenge and dishing out a performance that can silence the detractors and win him some adulation.
Hardik is yet to set the IPL on fire. With 35 runs and one wicket, the first two games have been pretty forgettable for the new MI captain and as MI search for their first win of the season, there may not be a more opportune moment for the narrative to change. MI lost their season opener to Gujarat Titans by 6 runs, before going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad by another 31 in a match that saw over 500 runs scored.
RR put MI in to bat
In comparison, Rohit has fared a tad better. The former MI captain got his IPL 2024 campaign going with an entertaining 43 off 29 balls as he and Dewald Brevis put on 77 runs for the third wicket. He looked like a million bucks during his stay in the middle. In the second game against SRH, Rohit was dismissed for 26 but not before smashing 26 off 11 balls including three sixes. However, Rohit’s luck fell flat today as he was dismissed out caught behind for a first-ball duck, the fifth time Trent Boult has dismissed him in the IPL. With this, Rohit also created an unwanted record of registering the joint-most ducks (17) in IPL history – Dinesh Karthik being the other.
