Centurion : Virat Kohli has literally made the 22-yard strip his own kingdom and the India captain is not in a mood to “compete with anyone” for any specific “tag” such as the best batsman in world cricket.
Kohli was again at the forefront scoring a staggering 558 runs (including three hundreds) in his team’s 5-1 ODI series win against South Africa but made it clear that he has never ever played cricket to be a “headline grabber”.
“At this stage, I don’t feel like competing with anyone. It’s all about how I prepare before the game and what my work ethics are and how I am feeling on game day. My only motivation is to get into that frame of mind. I am not competing with anyone at all,” Kohli said at the post-match press conference.
The key to consistency is not thinking too ahead of himself. “But if you are thinking about being ahead of someone else then you will be found out very soon by this game and you are compromising on what the team needs as well,” the skipper said after anchoring his team home with yet another ODI hundred.
Asked if he can now be termed as the best batsman in world cricket, the straight-talking skipper said: “As I said, I don’t want any tags. I don’t want any headlines. I just go out there and do my job, it is up to the people to write what they write, I don’t want to be called anything. “It’s my job, I am supposed to do what I am doing and I am not doing anyone a favour, so just want to be in this zone of working as hard as I can and trying to do the best for the team,” the skipper added in a matter-of-fact manner.