Hardik Pandya's first assignment as the captain of Mumbai Indians (MI) saw him taking on his former side Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 24).

The all-rounder was traded during the off-season from GT to MI for a hefty sum of INR 15 Crore, with Shubman Gill taking over as the skipper of GT.

On his return to the Narendra Modi Stadium, Hardik didn’t enjoy the best of time. There was a lot of noise from the crowd when he walked out for the toss and some netizens believe that the cricketer was booed heavily by the Ahmedabad crowd.

Moreover, Hardik Pandya was booed by the crowd when he opened the bowling proceedings for Mumbai Indians. The MI captain conceded 11 runs in his first over and the crowd made big roar when he was getting hit for boundaries.

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl first. At the toss, he also issued a noteworthy statement.

"Feels good to be back. 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 back. It's been almost two weeks, we started the camp. Boys are very eager to go out there and perform," Pandya told Ravi Shastri at the toss.

“We had wonderful practice matches and practice nets. All are looking good. The excitement is a different feeling. We have four quicks, three spinners and seven batters. Making sure all the departments are looked after,” he added.

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.

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.