Sachin Tendulkar is arguably the biggest name when it comes to not only Indian cricket but also world cricket. He holds all the major batting records available in the Tests and the ODI format of the game, be it leading the run tally in both formats as well as reaching the pinnacle as far as the number of centuries is concerned.
Sachin has donned the India cap for 24 long years and has seen many ups & downs in his career. The ups are he became one of the finest batsmen to have ever graced the game of cricket, winning countless matches for the Indian team and finishing his illustrious career with a World Cup win against his name.
But in the middle of all his laurels, there were also many setbacks that he had to endure along the way. There were match-fixing scandals that rocked Indian cricket during the start of the millennium and it was the phase where Sachin’s stature as a player grew. He was almost the lone warrior for the team on the overseas tours till the point some of the other match winners entered the fray.
In the phase of that turmoil happening within Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar was given the additional task of leading the Indian side at a relatively young age and it is fair to say that the batting maestro didn’t have the best of stints as the skipper of Indian cricket. The team as a whole didn’t do well under the leadership of Sachin Tendulkar but his own performances were still good. He led India in 2 different phases: one from 1996/97 and then again in the 1999/00 season post the match-fixing saga that rocked Indian cricket.
Let us scan Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy record in international cricket.
| FORMAT | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | WON | LOST | DRAW | TIED | NR | WIN% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 25 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 16.00 |
| ODIs | 72 | 23 | 42 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 31.94 |
| Total | 97 | 27 | 51 | 12 | 1 | 6 | 27.83 |
There is no doubt in anybody’s mind about who was the best batsman in world cricket during the era in which Sachin Tendulkar played, but he will be the first to admit that he wasn’t as successful a captain as he was as a batter. He has led India in 97 international matches across formats, and the team lost more than half of the matches when Sachin was at the helm. With only 4 wins in 25 Test matches and 23 of his 72 ODIs, Sachin’s win percentage as a skipper is only 27.83, which shows he didn’t enjoy his tenure leading the team.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Record as the Test captain of India
As mentioned, India won only 4 games out of the 25 Tests (13 home and 12 away). Sachin led the team, and there was no overseas win in this tenure. India lost an away series in South Africa 2-0 in the 1996/97 series while going down 0-1 in the 5-match away series against West Indies. After getting hammered 3-0 down under in 1999/2000 during his 2nd reign as skipper before succumbing to a rare home series defeat against South Africa in the early 2000s.
Let us glance at Sachin as captain and how he fared among the top ten most-capped Indian captains in the format.
Indian Test Captaincy Record
| PLAYER | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | WON | LOST | DRAWN | TIED | WIN% | OVERSEAS WINS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 68 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 58.82 | 16 |
| MS Dhoni | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 45 | 6 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 21 | 13 | 15 | 0 | 42.85 | 11 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 0 | 29.78 | 3 |
| Rohit Sharma | 24 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 50.00 | 2 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 0 | 19.14 | 3 |
| Nawab of Pataudi | 40 | 9 | 19 | 12 | 0 | 22.5 | 2 |
| Rahul Dravid | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 32 | 5 |
| Bishan Singh Bedi | 22 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 27.27 | 3 |
| Kapil Dev | 34 | 4 | 7 | 22 | 1 | 11.76 | 2 |
Only Sachin in the list hasn’t won a Test match as captain away from India, making him one of India’s least successful captains.
Though India didn’t win that many Test matches under the leadership of Sachin Tendulkar, the master blaster did enjoy success as a batsman during his captaincy period.
Most Runs as Indian Captain in Test Cricket
| PLAYER | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | INNINGS | RUNS | 100s | 50s | AVERAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 68 | 113 | 5864 | 20 | 18 | 54.4 |
| MS Dhoni | 60 | 96 | 3454 | 5 | 24 | 40.64 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 74 | 3449 | 11 | 14 | 50.72 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 68 | 2856 | 9 | 9 | 43.94 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 75 | 2561 | 5 | 13 | 37.66 |
| N Pataudi | 40 | 73 | 2424 | 5 | 13 | 34.14 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 25 | 43 | 2054 | 7 | 7 | 51.35 |
| Rahul Dravid | 25 | 45 | 1736 | 4 | 10 | 44.51 |
| Kapil Dev | 34 | 48 | 1364 | 3 | 8 | 31.72 |
Sachin Tendulkar had an average of 51.35 with the bat as the captain of the Indian Test team, having scored 2054 runs in the 43 times he has batted for the country under his captaincy. Only Virat Kohli (54.40) has a better average than the master blaster as the captain of the Indian Test team.
He has made 7 centuries, including a double century (217) at the Narendra Modi Stadium against New Zealand. Out of his 7 tons, Sachin made 4 of those away from home, with the first one coming in a losing cause at the Newlands in South Africa and 2 more in a 2 drawn Tests in Sri Lana before making a brilliant boxing day ton at the MCG but again in losing cause.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Record as the ODI captain of India
Sachin Tendulkar was the best player ever seen in the ODI format of the game, but as the side’s skipper, his returns were poor. He has led the team in 72 ODIs and won just 23 with a win percentage of 31.94 which isn’t that great. Of the 72 games India played in his tenure as the skipper, only 18 came at home, and India won 10. The remainder of the games was either played away from home or at neutral venues in multi-national tournaments.
This shows India has been on the road on most occasions when Sachin has led the side, and the men in blue were not known to be the best of touring sides at that time. So we can say that Sachin has been a tad unlucky.
Indian ODI Captaincy Record
| PLAYER | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | WON | LOST | TIED | NR | WIN% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS Dhoni | 200 | 110 | 74 | 5 | 11 | 59.52 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 174 | 90 | 76 | 2 | 6 | 54.16 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 146 | 76 | 65 | 0 | 5 | 53.9 |
| Virat Kohli | 95 | 65 | 27 | 1 | 2 | 70.43 |
| Rahul Dravid | 79 | 42 | 33 | 0 | 4 | 56.00 |
| Kapil Dev | 74 | 39 | 32 | 0 | 2 | 54.16 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 73 | 23 | 43 | 1 | 6 | 35.07 |
| Rohit Sharma | 48 | 34 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 70.83 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 37 | 14 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 44.44 |
Let’s take a look at the captaincy record of various Indian skippers. Sachin has the lowest win percentage among them, including 2 of the World Cup-winning skippers of India, MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev. Apart from the duo, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, and Azharuddin have led the team to the knockouts of the world cup.
But as mentioned, Sachin had to lead the time when it was going through a lot of transition and internal turmoil. He was also fairly young (23 years) when he assumed the captaincy, and the pressure might have been too much on him.
Most Runs as Indian Captain in ODI Cricket
| PLAYER | MATCHES | INNINGS | NOT OUTS | RUNS | HIGH SCORE | AVEAGE | STRIKE RATE | 100/50 | DUCKS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS Dhoni | 200 | 172 | 48 | 6641 | 139* | 53.55 | 86.21 | 6/47 | 3 |
| Virat Kohli | 95 | 91 | 16 | 5449 | 160* | 72.65 | 98.28 | 21/27 | 3 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 174 | 162 | 29 | 5239 | 153* | 39.39 | 78.46 | 4/37 | 6 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 146 | 142 | 11 | 5082 | 144 | 38.79 | 76.32 | 11/30 | 9 |
| Rahul Dravid | 79 | 75 | 12 | 2658 | 105 | 42.19 | 75.42 | 2/25 | 4 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 73 | 70 | 5 | 2454 | 186* | 37.75 | 83.46 | 6/12 | 4 |
| Rohit Sharma | 48 | 47 | 7 | 2204 | 208* | 55.10 | 112.50 | 4/16 | 3 |
| Kapil Dev | 74 | 67 | 16 | 1564 | 175* | 30.66 | 105.74 | 1/7 | 4 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 37 | 31 | 4 | 702 | 80 | 26 | 61.68 | 0/5 | 3 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 18 | 17 | 2 | 481 | 88 | 32.06 | 67.46 | 0/4 | 2 |
Unlike the Test format, where Sachin enjoyed a great deal of success as a batsman in his captaincy in this format. The legendary player had an ODI batting average (38.33) as a captain much lower than his career average, which stands at an astounding 44.48 in a whopping 463 games. But simultaneously, his incredible knock of unbeaten 186 at Hyderabad against New Zealand came in his captaincy. That innings, one among the top five captain’s knocks in ODI cricket, is his 2nd higher ODI score.
MS Dhoni has scored the most runs as ODI skipper of India at 6641 runs, while Virat Kohli’s incredible average of 72.65 after 91 games is the best among the Indians.
Despite being the best batsman of his generation, Sachin Tendulkar didn’t enjoy a great deal as the national team’s skipper. And this was one of the reasons why he didn’t take up the Indian captaincy again after his resignation in early 2000. He was set to have been offered the role again in 2007 post-Rahul Dravid’s resignation, which he politely declined. MS Dhoni took up the role, and the rest is history.
Sachin Tendulkar IPL Captaincy Record
| TEAM | MATCHES | WON | LOST | DRAW | N/R | WIN% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | Mumbai Indians | 51 | 30 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 58.82 |
Sachin did lead the Mumbai Indians in the IPL in 51 games across 6 seasons, winning 30 of those games and losing 21.
The one-time Orange Cap winner made 1723 runs while leading the Mumbai Indians side.
Relevant Read: The Top Ten IPL Captains with Most Wins
