"Everyone needs to let go of that and support Hardik Pandya" - Steve Smith urges MI fans to get behind their skipper

Veteran Australian batter Steve Smith believes that the Mumbai Indians (MI) fans have given Hardik Pandya enough flak after the captaincy saga. He feels it is time they back their leader and the team to turn around their IPL 2024 campaign.

MI have lost their opening three matches and are rock bottom in the points table. After being booed in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, Hardik faced a similar fate on his return to the Wankhede Stadium as well against the Rajasthan Royals.

Speaking to PTI, here's what Steve Smith was quoted as saying by India Today on why MI fans need to let go of their anger regarding how the captaincy transition from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya was handled:

"I'd love to see them supporting Hardik. Obviously, there's a lot of huge Rohit fans out there. A lot of people are a bit annoyed that he's not the captain of the side. But, everyone needs to let go of that and support Hardik.

"He's a wonderful player. He had a lot of success at Gujarat (Titans). He's back (as) captain of the side at Mumbai now. The senior players need to help him out."

Some fans are sad about Hardik's comments last year where he claimed that MI had a culture of buying star players. On the other hand, others feel the owners could have handled the transition smoothly with more transparency.

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Steve Smith on whether MI will panic after a poor start to IPL 2024

While Mumbai Indians are yet to win a single game this season, Steve Smith shed light on how the five-time IPL champions have always been slow starters. He feels they know what is needed to be done to turn it around and get back into the race to the playoffs.

On this, he stated:

"One thing about the Mumbai Indians is (that) they're notoriously bad starters in the tournament. They've done it on numerous occasions. I don't think they'd be too worried just yet. But, they will have to turn things around really quickly. It doesn't look good, 0-3 at the bottom of the table."

MI have received a massive boost as Suryakumar Yadav has joined the team in Mumbai. They will face the Delhi Capitals next at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, April 7.