Ravi Shastri lends support to Hardik Pandya after Mumbai Indians's 'hat-trick' of loss, says, 'just be patient...'

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ALSO READ: IPL 2024: Irfan Pathan lambasts Hardik Pandya after Mumbai Indians' third loss — 'He won’t earn his team’s respect..' "You have supported the team over the years. In just 2-3 matches, they won't be a bad team. They are 5-time champions, after all, they have a new captain.

Just be patient, you know the bloke you're getting after is a human being like you. At the end of the day, he has to sleep in the night. So just think about it, be calm," Ravi Shastri told Star Sports. Shastri even advised Pandya that everything would change when they started winning matches and suggested him to remain calm and patient.

"My thing to Hardik would be ‘calm, patient, ignore, and then just focus on your game’. You get a couple of performances going..they are a terrific side, and if they win 3-4 matches, everything will subside. You will, things will change," he added.

On the issue of sacking MI's former skipper Rohit Sharma, Shastri said they were entitled to decide on their team's skipper. "See, at the end of the day, this is not an Indian cricket team that is playing. This is franchise cricket.

They have paid top dollar, they are the bosses. It's their entitlement as to who they want as captain," Shastri said. However, he agreed that the communication would have been better about the change in captaincy.

"Where I think this could have been handled better is more clarity in communication. If you wanted as captain, say you're looking at the future, looking to build, we are doing a fabulous job as everyone knows and we want him to help out Hardik in the next 3 years when the team is in progress. That communication should have come out a little more for all this to die down.