India captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday insisted that he doesn’t “feed off” the crowd booing him anymore and revealed that he is unfazed by bouquets or brickbats inside the stadium.

Kohli was on the receiving end of the Australian fans in the Test series Down Under recently. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting slammed the behaviour of the crowd during the series, calling for the heckling of Kohli to stop.

Ahead of the first One-day International against New Zealand in Napier, the topic resurfaced. “Well that used to happen in the middle phase of my career,” Kohli said, when asked if he used the booing as fuel to perform well.

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“It all started in 2014-’15 series [in Australia]. So, I used to feed off those things then as I needed to boost myself up but now being the captain of the team, I really don’t need to focus on [the booing],” he added.

Kohli recently led India to a historic Test series win Down Under. “I have a greater responsibility, which I understand as an honour to play for the country,” he said. “I necessarily don’t need the crowd to be on my side or against my side as I have to go out there and do my responsibilities whether there is one person or 50,000 people inside the ground. I will have to do my job.

“That’s the mindset that I have been in in the last two or three years. All these things are not what I think about when I go out there to bat,” the India skipper said.

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The ODIs in New Zealand will be followed by three Twenty20 Internationals. He said, “New Zealand is always great place to cricket. They enjoy and play quality cricket. They support good sportsmanship and good cricket.

“I think from that point of view I really enjoyed being here and how the crowd reacts to me or as a team is not what we think about as a side. We purely have to do our responsibilities on the field.”