Hardik Pandya was booed at the Narendra Modi Stadium as he returned to his former home ground as the captain of the Mumbai Indians on Sunday for the match against Gujarat Titans
Pandya began his Mumbai Indians captaincy against Gujarat Titans, a team that the star all-rounder himself marshalled over the last two seasons, in the IPL.
However, Pandya, having led the Titans to the title and runners-up finish in the previous two seasons, had gone to back to the Mumbai Indians where he made a name for himself.
As Pandya and GT's new skipper Shubman Gill were in the middle of the ground for the toss and when Pandya's name was announced by Ravi Shastri, the star all-rounder was greeted with boos by the crowd present inside the stadium.
Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Tim David, Shams Mulani, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chala, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood
Subs: Dewald Brevis, Romario Shepherd, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Mohammad Nabi
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Sai Kishore, Spencer Johnson
Subs: BR Sharath, Mohit Sharma, Manav Suthar, Abhinav Manohar, Noor Ahmad
The tournament also marks Pandya's comeback from a 'freak' ankle injury he picked up in the middle of the ODI World Cup in October.
The form of the injury-prone all-rounder with both bat and ball will be closely tracked in the tournament that precedes the T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean.