Senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar is likely to return as the Mumbai Indians captain for the sixth edition of the IPL commencing on April 3.

According to IPL sources, Tendulkar will take over from Harbhajan Singh as the captain of the side, which effectively would mean the end of Michael Clarke's chances to lead one of the most popular franchises.

Tendulkar, who has been the leader and the face of Mumbai Indians for all the five editions relinquished the role last season as he wanted to concentrate on his batting.

Harbhajan Singh had first captained the side successfully in the Champions League T20 but couldn't take MI to their elusive IPL triumph.

Tendulkar, who missed the first seven games of IPL's inaugural edition due to injury, was at Mumbai Indians' helm since its inception.

In IPL 2012, under Harbhajan, Mumbai Indians made it to the knockouts where they lost to Chennai Super Kings in the Eliminator.

There were a lot of speculations about Clarke taking over the mantle of captaincy as the team didn't have a leader of repute but once Tendulkar agreed to don the role put to rest all the speculations regarding any chances that Clarke had whatsoever.

Tendulkar, who had recently retired from the ODIs, would ideally like to win the IPL Trophy having achieved almost all the other major milestones including World Cup, No 1 ranking in Test matches and 100 international hundreds.