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Hardik Pandya should
just “block out” the taunts and insults he has been receiving from
supporters during the IPL thus far, according to Steven Smith.
Smith, who faced repeated jeers for his involvement in the 2018 Newlands
ball-tampering affair a few years earlier, stated that Hardik required the help
of his Mumbai Indians teammates, especially Rohit Sharma, whom Hardik succeeded
as captain before the IPL 2024 season began after an 11-year tenure.
“I’d try and just say, to block it out, it’s all irrelevant,” Smith
said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “No one outside knows what you are
going through. No one [from outside] is in that change room.”
After Smith admitted
to “leadership failure” in the Newlands Test, Cricket Australia
imposed him a year-long ban. Smith was also made to “step down” as
captain of the Rajasthan Royals for the 2018 Indian Premier League. He claimed
he had dismissed the heckling he had encountered as “white noise,”
citing instances during the 2019 ODI World Cup in England where spectators
yelled “cheat.”
Can Hardik, however, suffer any negative effects from the taunts from fans and
the experts’ criticism of his captaincy during the Mumbai Indians’ consecutive
IPL 2024 losses?
Smith hypothesised
that Hardik might have been taken aback by the ovation, given that the crowd do
not frequently jeer India’s best players. However, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin
Tendulkar, and Ravi Shastri have all experienced it at different stages of
their careers, so it is not unheard of.
“Personally, for me, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t care. I don’t pay any
attention,” Smith said. “You know it’s all white noise, but certainly
players do hear things and everyone’s entitled to their own emotions and how
they respond to those.
“So is it affecting him [Hardik]? Maybe. It’s possible. He probably hasn’t
experienced that before in, in any walk of life. So it’s natural, I suppose,
and particularly being in India and a star Indian player, to be in that
position where some fans are booing you, it’s certainly something he wouldn’t
have experienced.”