Captaincy has made me a better player: Rohit

Rohit Sharma, captain of Mumbai Indians, feels the responsibility of leading the side has had an impact on him like none other. Assigned captaincy of the Reliance-owned franchise midway through the 2013 season, Rohit took the side to its maiden IPL title and followed it up with the Champions Trophy win later that year. In the next edition, with the team's back against the wall, Rohit lifted his men to make it to the knockouts after going winless in the UAE leg.

"With captaincy, a great deal of responsibility has come on

my shoulders and I am loving each and every moment of it," Rohit told IPLt20.com. "It has made me a better player and my decision making has been good over the last couple of years which is what you enjoy. You want to grow as a cricketer. I feel with the captaincy lot of things have come into my game. I have matured as a person and I understand things well. I am glad captaincy has come my way and I have responded well."

As a settled MI eye a second IPL trophy, Rohit believes his side possesses a host of exciting young talents and international T20 powerhouses which will help him strike the right balance. "I have had a great two years so I just want to continue what I have been doing and as a team also we want to have a lot of success," Rohit said. "Whether it's Mumbai Indians or as the Indian team, wherever we go and play we want to be successful. The team is good. We have got good young bunch of cricketers. The drive to become a better team is there, so I hope we just continue."

Contrary to their previous seasons, MI suffered in terms of recruits in 2014 - both domestic and international. The lack of quality uncapped Indian players put pressure on the marquee players such as Michael Hussey, Corey Anderson and Kieron Pollard. This year, however, Rohit is confident the new faces will bring a lot of positivity and competitiveness.

"We don't have much time to know each other so we have to make full use of whatever time we have," Rohit said. "You do that by having a lot of get-together sessions, you get along in the team room, have casual dinners where you get to see everyone and most importantly, you talk. And as a captain it's my responsibility to go and talk to everyone and make them comfortable. Because the guys who are new in the team, they might just feel uncomfortable, it's natural. It has happened to me before to a lot of other players as well. So it's important for a captain to just go and talk and get to know them.

"Every person has a character, so it's important to give them liberty, make them feel at home so that they can express themselves. That's how you get to know them. Once the person expresses themselves (freely) the people who are watching see the person for who they are and will know them better."

One of MI's strong suits over the years has been their batting, but the bowling front is where they have never been that reliable. However, this season, it is the bowling which could be MI's main attraction in light of new additions such as World Cup-winning Josh Hazlewood and experienced domestic medium pacers Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun.

"We have a great bowling line-up. Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun are seasoned campaigners. And the past two years they have been winning the Ranji Trophy and everything so they are obviously on a high and they know what they are doing," Rohit said of his bowlers. "It's important to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and they know that. I am sure they will bring a lot of things to the table for us when it comes to bowling. They have a lot of experience. They have played in the IPL and played international crickets as well so they know [what needs to be done].

"Josh Hazlewood he has been good for Australia this summer and the kind of confidence he has right now will bring a lot of success to us I hope."