India skipper Virat Kohli could well have bowled first after winning the toss in the third and final T20I of the series against South Africa but he didn't in order to throw a different challenge to his players and see how they respond. 

Virat hopes to mould his team that way as part of the long-term planning ahead of next year's T20 World Cup in Australia. 

Hence, he didn't mind losing a game and ending up level in the series because it gave India a sighter of the perks of the newly adopted balance and helps to identify a right combination in the near future. 

"Look, we will have to take risks. Even when you want to win a game of cricket you have to take risks, so nothing is a given, nothing is a guarantee before you start playing," Kohli said at the post-match press conference on Sunday (September 22) after his team's nine-wicket defeat in Bangalore. 

"I think as a team if we are willing to get out of our comfort zone a lot more, then we will be unfazed with what happens at the toss. That's our basis idea: trying to take the toss out of the equation as a side."

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India is expected to continue testing the same group of young players and all-rounders against Bangladesh, West Indies and Zimbabwe in the rest of this home season. 

"That's why we are trying to play the best combination we can, (with) people batting till nine. So that if you bat first or bowl first, you know we are in a good position," Kohli said.

"Mentally, if we put ourselves in a situation where we are ready to do anything rather than wanting to do one thing, we will be in a better position as a side to capitalise on any situation that we are in."

"Unless you do that, unless you start taking those risks, you are always going to be put under somewhere or the other. We want to make sure that we iron all those out before we head into the World Cup," he concluded. 

(Inputs from PTI)