The skipper once again made it clear that public perceptions are least of his concerns as long as his team knows his worth.

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.

'Don't want any tags'

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.

The skipper once again made it clear that public perceptions are least of his concerns as long as his team knows his worth.

“What matters is what the management thinks about me, what I think about the players and what the players think about me. That’s all that matters to me. I know the headlines change from day in and day out. Tomorrow I play a bad shot and get out for zero everyone will conveniently do what they want to do, so it’s not my job to say anything about what I do.

“Yes, if I make a mistake I will come here and accept it. I have never been one to give excuses and will remain like that. But I am never one to come here and praise myself. I can never do that because as I said, this is a job for me. I am not doing anyone a favour,” the skipper’s statement showed that how much the criticisms in the past has hurt him.

India's juggernaut rolls on

While India’s ODI juggernaut has rolled on, there have been questions raised about the quality of opposition playing ODI cricket and the skipper’s views made it clear that he wasn’t amused one bit.

Questioned if this was India’s best overseas win, pat came a terse response: “You people can tell!”

“One month back we were a very bad team. Now we are being asked these questions. We haven’t changed our mindset. Now whether this is the biggest win or no, whoever wants to analyze, write will do so,” Kohli’s response made it clear from where it was coming.

It was a sense of deja vu for the skipper, who had a slight altercation with the media at this very venue after the team lost the Test series.

“I know for a fact that 90 percent people didn’t give us a chance after two Tests. I was sitting in the same room giving a press conference. So we understand where we’ve come from,” the sarcasm was not lost on anyone.

“I am not going to live in a dreamland right now and accept all the praise, sit here and feel good about this, because it doesn’t matter to me. Honestly it doesn’t. It didn’t matter when we were 2-0 down, it doesn’t matter now that we are 5-1 up because what matters is the respect in the change-room,” the disdain and disregard for the media was once again evident in each and every sentence that he spoke.

The skipper sounded a bit irritated when asked about South Africa being laid low by injuries to senior players.

“Whether the team was what it was supposed to be was not in our hands. It’s none of our concern. We want to take the best team as far as we can on the field and have the best mindset to perform on every given day that we represent our country. That remains our mind set regardless of what happens.”

One needs to show patience with Markram

International cricket can be harsh on young captains and no one knows it better than Virat Kohli, who feels that South Africa should persist with young Aiden Markram, since he has got all the requisite qualities to become a good leader.

Markram was handed the South African captaincy after the first ODI as Faf du Plessis got injured and it was a trial by fire with India trouncing the hosts 5-1 in a lopsided six-match series.

“He’s (Markram) obviously captained his province and he has captained at the junior level as well. I would really suggest people show patience with him because he is potentially your next leader. He is a top-class batsman as well. It’s a joy to watch him play and he has definitely got the talent to dominate as a batsman,” Kohli was all praise for the former U-19 World Cup winning South African captain.

“He’s got the right mindset to dominate as a leader too. He just needs some time. I can totally empathize with him because I’ve been in that position. All I can say is he’s on the right track,” the Indian captain added.

Kohli had words of encouragement for the young Proteas skipper.

“It is not easy and I understand it. Especially, when the results are not going your way. I have been very impressed with his batting and as a captain as well he is really composed from what I saw in the field. It is not easy when things are not going your way but he is someone who doesn’t seem to lose his cool, which I think is a very good thing and a very positive sign,” he signed off.