'Need to give Pant space to ease into international cricket' - Kohli

"We are looking at Rishabh Pant as the future." This was Virat Kohli, point-blank, when asked about the 21-year old's role in the Indian set-up going forward.

Batting at No. 4 in each of the three T20Is, Pant repaid the team management's faith following two poor outings in Lauderhill. On Tuesday, he crafted his second T20I half-century, an unbeaten 65 that he constructed during the course of a 106-run third-wicket stand with Kohli that helped India canter to victory and a 3-0 whitewash.

"He's got a lot of skill and talent," Kohli said. "It's about winning and finishing games like these and gaining confidence, which he wants to do as well. It's about giving him a bit more space to ease himself into international cricket and not putting too much pressure because of the way he's played in the IPL.

"At the international level, you need to tackle pressure differently and play yourself into the whole set-up. He has come a long way since he started. If he plays like this more regularly, we will see his potential shine for India."

Kohli was equally effusive in his praise for Deepak Chahar and his ability to swing the new ball, a hallmark of his game that MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming have harnessed well at Chennai Super Kings over the last two years.

The India captain felt Chahar's new-ball skills were "right up there with Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar]" and that the 26-year-old had done well for himself. "Deepak is very similar to Bhuvi, he's lethal with the new ball," Kohli said. "Bhuvi has bit more experience at the death. Getting a lot with the new ball in any condition has been his USP in the IPL too."

Chahar and Pant's contributions consigned West Indies to their sixth successive T20I loss. Carlos Brathwaite, their captain, accepted he needed to perform better to begin with, but also stressed on being "close to finding their perfect combination" with an eye on next year's T20 World Cup, which they will enter as defending champions.

"The skipper needs to perform firstly," he said. "We need to get a way of playing. We've had a few changes in and out. We haven't had a period of time where we've got together and played as a unit. That's something we need to do after the CPL. We've seen some restructuring in the batting order from game to game, we are still trying to finding out our perfect combination, I think we're a lot closer now."