Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team

Jul 6, 2020 at 3:10 PM

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Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team

In the 143-year-old international cricket history, many legendary cricketers have entertained us with their pure performances in the game. Their presence is very important in the game as they have played the leading role in the growth of the game.

While we have seen many legendary cricketers lead their respective national sides at least for sometimes, some legendary cricketers never had that luck.

Here we are talking about the top five legendary cricketers who never played as a captain in their national team.

James Anderson

James Anderson, legendary cricketer, captain, Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team
James Anderson (Image Credits: Getty Images)

The English right-arm pacer James Anderson is one of the greatest pacers in international cricket history. He is very famous for delivering unplayable swing balls, which mostly have no answer even for the top-class batsmen. While the right-arm pacer has also impressed in the ODI format, he has achieved incredible success in the Test format.

After making his international debut in December 2002, Anderson has played 151 Tests, 194 ODIs and 19 T20Is where he has taken 584, 269 and 18 wickets respectively. Apart from being the most wicket-taker for England, Anderson is also the fourth-most Test wicket-taker and sixth-most international wicket-taker (871 wickets). Though he last played the limited-overs format in international cricket in 2015, Anderson is still dominating in the Test cricket. Only in recent years, the senior pacer is facing a big problem to fight against his fitness issues.

Despite performing strongly for the England team for a long time, Anderson hasn’t earned any opportunity to lead the England side. As a pacer, it is very hard to concentrate every time in the team, especially in the field set-up, and it may be a big reason why we haven’t seen him as an English captain.

Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden, legendary cricketer, captain, Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team
Matthew Hayden (Image Credit: Getty Images)

While it is a high trend to see a great batsman leading a national team, former Australian opener Matthew Hayden hadn’t that similar luck in his entire international career. The left-handed opening batsman was one of the most successful batsmen in Australian cricket history as he is the most run-scorer as an Australian opener in international cricket history (14825 runs) and also seventh-most international run-scorer as an Aussie batsman.

If we see the top 10 most international run-scorers for Australia, Hayden is among few of these cricketers who never led the Australian team in international cricket history.

Hayden successfully served for Australia between 1993 and 2009, where the left-handed batsman scored 8625 runs in 103 Tests (average 50.73), 6133 runs in 161 ODIs (average 43.80) and 308 runs in nine T20Is (average 51.33). During his international career, Hayden hit 40 centuries (30 Test centuries and 10 ODI centuries) and 69 half-centuries (29 Test fifties, 36 ODI fifties and four T20I fifties).

In October 2003, Hayden also recorded the highest individual knock in a Test inning, which was 380 runs against Zimbabwe at Perth. However, in April 2004, the Caribbean legend regained that record by becoming the first Test batsman to score 400 runs in an innings (400 not out against England at St John’s).

Hayden also played the crucial roles for Australia’s winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 and 2007 trophies, while he also finished as the leading run-scorer in the 2007 edition. However, he never experienced the captaincy for the Australian team.

Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh, legendary cricketer, captain, Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team
Yuvraj Singh (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh was one of the greatest and successful all-rounders in international cricket history. He played one of the most crucial roles for the national team to count the highest level of successes in international cricket.

Yuvraj played international cricket from 2000 to 2017, where he played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is. The left-handed batsman scored 1900 Test runs (average 33.92), 8701 ODI runs (average 36.55) and 1177 T20I runs (average 28.02). Also, as a left-arm spinner, Yuvraj managed to pick up nine Test wickets, 111 ODI wickets and 28 T20I wickets. He was one of the most successful all-rounders in limited-overs cricket history.

During the leadership crisis after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, Yuvraj was reportedly favourite to become the captain of the Indian team. However, at the end moment, MS Dhoni was chosen for the limited-overs captaincies of the Indian team, which was ultimately proved one of the crucial decisions in Indian cricket history.

Yuvraj played very important roles during MS Dhoni-led India’s successful journey in the ICC World T20 2007 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The all-rounder even won the Player of the Tournament award in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. However, he still missed out to experience the Indian captaincy, who ultimately ended the international career in June 2019.

Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath, legendary cricketer, captain, Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team
Glenn McGrath (Image Credit: Getty Images)

In this article, we have already said that it is very tough to lead a national team for the pacers, and the legendary Australian pacer Glenn McGrath is another example of this. The right-arm pacer McGrath maintained his dominance with the ball in hand for many years but he never earned the Australian captaincy.

McGrath played international cricket from 1993 to 2007 where he managed to claim 563 wickets in 124 Tests, 381 wickets in 250 ODIs and five wickets in two T20Is. McGrath is still the most international wicket-taker as a pace bowler who bagged 949 wickets in 376 international matches.

The right-arm pacer McGrath also played important roles for his team to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 1999, 2003, 2007 and many more other trophies. In the Cricket World Cup history, he is still the most wicket-taker as he managed to pick up 71 wickets in 39 matches.

Despite these absolute dominances, McGrath was never considered for the captaincy role of the Australia national cricket team.

Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan, legendary cricketer, captain, Top 5 Legendary Cricketers Who Never Played As A Captain In Their National Team
Muttiah Muralitharan (Picture Source – AP Photo)

 

Among the genuine bowlers (excluding the all-rounders), the legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan played most of the international matches. However, the long-time Sri Lankan cricketer never earned the leadership cap of the Sri Lanka national cricket team.

Muralitharan served for the Sri Lankan team between 1992 and 2011, where he played 495 international matches in overall (133 Tests, 350 ODIs and 12 T20Is). He is the most wicket-taker in international cricket history (1347 wickets) as well as in the Test (800 wickets) and ODI (534 wickets) history. Moreover, in T20I career, he also managed to claim 13 wickets. He was also a member during Sri Lanka’s winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 1996 trophy where the youngster managed to pick up seven wickets in six games.

Despite some controversies with his bowling action, Muralitharan never gave up and returned to the game more strongly and cleanly. Though he played a huge role for Sri Lanka’s success in international cricket, he never led his national side being amongst those legendary cricketers.

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