Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya’s face told the whole story during the toss before the IPL 2024 clash vs his old team Gujarat Titans (GT) at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Last year, Pandya was leading GT, this year he is donning the blue jersey of MI. The crowd started booeing the new MI captain after commentator Ravi Shastri took his name at the toss. The booeing had an effect on Pandya whose face expressions revealed it all. MI won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Also Read | Why Suryakumar Yadav Missed Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians Clash?
Watch the video of Hardik getting booed by GT crowd in Ahmedabad:
Hardik’s reaction when he realized they are booing__ https://t.co/ElPYn9ESTm
— Irroh (@irroh45) March 24, 2024
Rohit Sharma, former MI captain, was retained in the side and will open the innings with Ishan Kishan while Tilak Varma is going to play for MI at number 3. There is no Suryakumar Yadav in the side for Mumbai and they bring in Naman Dhir who makes his debut.
Jasprit Bumrah is also back in MI colours as South African pace sensation Gerald Coetzee made his IPL debut. Luke Wood was also on his IPL debut. The MI middle order looked strong as it included Hardik, Tim David while Shams Mulani also makes the cut with Piyush Chawla being the lone wrist spinner in the side.
While he got booed by the Ahmedabad crowd, Pandya spoke about his connect with Gujarat. He said ,”My birthplace is Gujarat, a lot of success came in Gujarat, very grateful to the crowd and this state. My cricketing birth happened in Mumbai, so really good to be be back. It’s been almost two weeks, we started the camp. Boys are very eager to go out there and perform. We had wonderful practice matches and practice nets.”
Not to forget, it was not just Pandya who was on a debut of sorts as he was leading the MI team for the first time, Shubman Gill was also captaining Gujarat Titans (GT) for the first time as well.
Speaking to Shastri at the toss, Shubman said that he was excited to lead GT at a ground of which he has fond memories.
“Feels very excited, to be able to captain at a stadium where I have a lot of fond memories. This has been one of our strengths, the last couple of seasons the support that we’ve got from the fans has been tremendous for us. I was here a week prior before this game, played a practice match, had a couple of practice sessions. Everyone is looking good, everyone is looking fit. We have got three players making debuts for GT – Umesh bhai, Spencer and Omarzai. There are so many players who will be making their debut later this season,” said Shubman.
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Wriddhiman Saha(w), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Spencer Johnson
Gujarat Titans Subs: BR Sharath, Mohit Sharma, Manav Suthar, Abhinav Manohar, Noor Ahmad
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood
Mumbai Indians Subs: Dewald Brevis, Romario Shepherd, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Mohammad Nabi
