Kohli's message to youngsters: Need players at number 6 and 7 to win matches under pressure

India captain Virat Kohli on Saturday said it will be tough for India to win ICC events unless the middle-order steps up and delivers in pressure situations.

India last won an ICC event back in 2013 (Champions Trophy) and is often described as a top-heavy team, relying on big contributions from either skipper himself or his deputy Rohit Sharma.

The focus this year is on T20 World Cup and Kohli, in his first media interaction of the year, conveyed his expectations from his teammates.

"We need guys who are ready till number six and seven to win you games. It can't be dependent on two guys or three guys in the batting line-up. You know, that's not how you win ICC tournaments," said Kohli ahead of T20 series-opener against Sri Lanka.

"So that's our main focus to reveal situations to guys and expect them to come into their own and become those fearless match winners that we should have going into a big tournament."
"These next few series is going to be very exciting to see who stands up in pressure situations, how they react when may be Rohit or myself or KL or Shikhar at the top have not fired."
"It's good that we identify five or six guys and it will be priority based on you know who goes and then back-ups will be in place. Also with fast bowlers, we know small niggles can happen every now and then. So yeah, we're pretty sorted in that regard not worried at all."
"We have put the team on the right track in terms of, you know, being the team that everyone wants to be across formats. I think it is a very exciting position to be in. And that is something that we want to continue, keep the standards of the cricket that we've played as high as we have in the past couple of years."
"From a very young age, we are always focused on what we did as individuals. Even when we came back from a game, we were invariably asked, what did you do rather than, did the team win?
"So I think that's a mindset change that I see that happening in the last three years at a very big level where they started to appreciate small performances of guys who might have taken a catch or a great run-out in the game and they turned the whole game."