India posted 201/6 despite a middle order collapse between the 10th and 15th over before defeating Sri Lanka by 78 runs in the third T20I at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium here to seal a 2-0 series win.
"The confidence of getting that 200-run mark every now and then will put us in a good stead. The middle order collapse was challenging but what Manish (Pandey) and Shardul (Thakur) did was very good," he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
India went from 97/0 to 122/4 between the 11th and 13th over. However, Thakur and Pandey smashed 37 runs in the last three overs to take them past the 200-run mark.
"We require more of this in the coming games as well to see who are the guys putting their hands up when the senior guys don't get runs.
"Today I thought 180 and we got 200. In Mumbai (against the West Indies in December) we thought 200 and we got 230. We just want to continue that, we don't want to be a team that is tentative batting first. How confident we are batting second, we want to be like that batting first as well," Kohli said.
Shikhar Dhawan scored a fifty on Friday and his run of form since returning from injury has given India a selection headache at the top of the order with K.L. Rahul and Rohit Sharma both in the fray. Kohli, however, said that people should stop pitting players against each other if they are competing for the same position.
"All three openers are pretty strong players, and it's great to have players playing well in the team. It gives you options. But I think people need to stop pitting players against each other. It's all about a team game," he said.
( With inputs from IANS )
