Hardik Pandya might have been at the receiving end of fans' ire in this IPL, but Ishan Kishan has little doubt that the Mumbai Indians skipper is "enjoying the challenge" of winning them over.
Pandya, who replaced Rohit Sharma as the regular skipper of Mumbai before the start of this IPL, has been consistently getting booed by the spectators inside the stadium and the situation was no different on Thursday night when MI faced Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
But he also found a small corner of supporters at the Wankhede Stadium as MI registered a big win over RCB, and they were encouraged by star batter Virat Kohli.
He (Pandya) loves challenges, he has been in this situation before and he is in that situation right now. He is not someone who will come out and talk about it and say let's stop this or that, Kishan told the media here after MI defeated RCB by seven wickets.
I know that he must be enjoying it. I know him personally. I have spent a lot of time with him. He is ready for the challenges because you cannot complain to the fans, they will come up with their explanations and their point of views, Kishan added.
Kishan said the 29-year-old all-rounder could turn all anger around with his performances.
But knowing how Hardik Pandya thinks, he is happy with people doing it but I know that in the coming games he will do it with the bat and people will start loving him (again), he said.
Kishan highlighted Indian fans' tendency to recognise the hard work of a cricketer, irrespective of their personal feelings towards him.
People also recognise your hard work, what you are going through and still you are doing so well for your team. I think people do recognise that.
Our fans will be a little harsh on you but at the same time when you do well, or when you show that it is (still) not bothering you and (that) you are in a very good headspace, that might change. If not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, day after tomorrow," he said.
Kishan said Pandya's focus was on improving his outings.
I feel happy about him that even in this situation he is so keen on performing, hitting six on the very first ball knowing that things can go different way and people will question you again.But that is something which Hardik has in himself and other players don't, Kishan noted.
Jasprit Bumrah was at the top of his game returning with 4-0-21-5 against RCB but the other MI bowlers were wayward. Kishan backed them to do well.
We will get through that because planning is always there, we keep talking to our coaches, our captain, our video analyst, he said.
The wicket was very good (for batters). When the wicket is so good, we cannot complain about our bowlers, who were also good, but (then) we finished the game in the 16th over. We have to look at the positives that the bowlers did a great job in restricting RCB below 200, he added.