Despite being an icon player, why was Sachin Tendulkar not the captain of Mumbai Indians initially in the first season of IPL?

 

The 16th season of IPL has started and many records related to the captain have been the highlight of the last 15 seasons. This time, a big special record is going to be made in this context – MS Dhoni will make a record of captaining a team in 200 IPL matches. He was on 196 matches when the current season started. As of now, no one seems to be able to match this record - Rohit Sharma, who is currently the captain, is second and he was on 143 matches when the season started.

A very interesting discussion is that how much international cricket experience helps in getting a chance to become captain (or take captaincy) in an IPL match? On this question, let us discuss Mumbai Indians in particular. According to the record of the first 15 seasons of IPL, this team made 7 captains - in 231 matches. Rohit is the captain in this season also, so at present, his captain's count is only 7.

If you ask this question that in the first season of IPL in 2008, in the first match, who was the captain of Mumbai Indians, then without any problem the answer would be – Sachin Tendulkar. However this answer is wrong. The answer to why he was not the captain is a story.

Before IPL 2008, Mumbai Indians signed Sachin Tendulkar as their icon player. Then many international superstars like Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa and Shaun Pollock were also in the Mumbai Indians team. The biggest name among these was Tendulkar and he was declared the captain.

It so happened that Sachin Tendulkar got injured before the start of IPL and was not fit for the opening matches of the season. Mumbai Indians' first match was against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium and in Sachin's absence, Harbhajan Singh was the captain. Mumbai Indians - Lost by 5 wickets. Second match against Chennai Super Kings - Another defeat. Third match against Kings XI Punjab – Third consecutive defeat. After this match, Harbhajan Singh got caught in the 'Slap Gate' scandal and not only lost the captaincy, but was also dropped from the team.

Shaun Pollock became the new captain and he too could not change the fortunes of Mumbai completely. In the next match, they lost to Deccan Chargers by 10 wickets. Would you believe that Mumbai Indians, the team that won the most IPL titles, lost their first four IPL matches. Shaun Pollock, however, ended the losing streak and won his 5th match of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders. Before Tendulkar took over the captaincy in the season, two players had captained Mumbai in this manner.

Before captaining for the first time in IPL, Sachin Tendulkar had played 565 international matches and this is the record for playing most international matches before becoming captain in IPL for the first time.

Similarly, there is also a record of becoming the captain in IPL by playing the least number of international matches and the one whose name is still the captain. This record is in the name of none other than Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson - he became IPL captain only after playing 7 international matches. Debuted in this role on 12 April 2021 against Kings XI at Wankhede Stadium.

When IPL is adding the captain and his international match count, then a big funny record can also happen that those who played in IPL but never became the captain – who among them is on top in most international match count ? This record is in the name of Sanath Jayasuriya (586 matches) among foreign players and Ajit Agarkar (221 matches) among Indian players.