However, former India player and toss presenter Sanjay Manjrekar has come out in support of Hardik and asked the Wankhede crowd to behave and a big round of applause for MI skipper.
Pandya was badly booed by the crowd in MI’s first two matches played at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 but his homecoming did not bring any change of fortune.
Pandya has taken over MI captaincy from Rohit Sharma this season upon his return from Gujarat Titans and the whole saga of change of leadership has not gone down well with the fans.
Steve Smith, Trent Boult and Piyush Chawla backed the embattled MI skipper urging him to block out the negative noise emphasising that such reactions are all irrelevant.
“I’d try and just say, to block it out, it’s all irrelevant,” Smith, who has faced abuse from fans across the world for his role in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town, told ESPNcricinfo.
“It is something you cannot control, as professional sportspeople it is what you are exposed to in a way. You have to block out the white noise and focus on the job, (but) it is easier said than done,” Boult said.
Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl.
While MI decided to go with the same playing XI of their previous match, RR brought in Nandre Burger in place of Sandeep Sharma, who is not fit.
The two teams are coming into the match following contrasting results. While RR have registered two wins so far, MI have lost both their matches to lie at the bottom of the points table.