Milestones have never been my focus: Virat Kohli

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli's 15,000-run ODI milestone has put him in an elite club alongside Sachin Tendulkar, but said personal landmarks have never been his focus and underlined his hunger to "up the ante" for the team.

Kohli became only the second batsman in history after Tendulkar to complete 15,000 runs in ODI cricket. He hit a record-extending 55th century in ODIs to help India win the first match against the West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.

"My focus has never really been on these milestones, so to say. It's just understanding the situation along the course of just doing the job for the team, (the) achievements come along," Kohli told the broadcaster after the match.

"Obviously, I feel very grateful and very blessed to be in this position for having played for so long. Just keeping my head down, working hard and thanking God for everything that I've been blessed with and the opportunities that I've got in my life to be where I am," Kohli said.

The 37-year-old cricketer said he has a "very blessed life and a blessed journey because so many people want to be here, but we get to be the lucky ones, so we better put our head down and just work hard every day of our lives."

Kohli said that upping the ante to be more aggressive while batting has been a challenge for him.

"I got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and play a gear or two higher and yeah, that was exciting for me to work on," he said.

The batsman said he is just keeping himself physically very fit at this stage of his career because the game's more or less in the mind. "I've never been a guy who practised a lot even when I was playing all three formats (of cricket) as you know," he replied to a query from former India coach Ravi Shastri.

"For me it's about staying mentally fresh, staying in the present moment and just expressing myself really out there to play in a certain way, get used to this template more often."