Lucknow: India wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik has been impressed with the unbeaten start his former side have made to the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and is convinced they will finish the group stage in first place.
India cruised to a sixth straight victory at this year's showpiece event when defeating reigning champions England by 100 runs here on Sunday and now have one foot in the knockout stages of the event as they sit alone at the top of the tournament standings.
Karthik believes his former side will take much confidence from their triumph over England as they were made to register the win in a much different way to what they were used to.
Things looked grim for India when they were sent into bat after losing the toss and the early departure of Shubman Gill (9) and Virat Kohli (0) during the Powerplay reduced the tournament hosts to just 27/2 inside seven overs.
But a steady knock from skipper Rohit Sharma (87) and some sensible late batting from the likes of Suryakumar Yadav (49), Jasprit Bumrah (16) and Kuldeep Yadav (9 not out) helped India bat out their overs and post a competitive total of 229/9 that proved far too much for an out-of-form England.
"India will take plenty of positives," Karthik told on the latest episode of The ICC Review Podcast.
"I don’t think they could have got a better game," he said.
"I think they will go back home and sleep happy that they are on a journey where something special is going to be happening," Karthik said.
Karthik noted how vital it was for India's tailenders to ensure they weren’t dismissed prior to the end of the 50th over, by adding some valuable late runs that pushed their total past 200.
"At 183/7 in many ways you are playing a game that is well under-par,” Karthik noted.
"What was even more beautiful, was to see the likes of Bumrah and Kuldeep fight it out right at the end," he said.
"That was a very positive sign. Not in terms of a partnership, but in terms of the attitude and what you want to see," Karthik said.
"We saw Pakistan waste 20 balls the other day against South Africa and who knew what would have happened if they had batted those 20 balls," he said.
"From a point of view of fighting battles and being there for the team and doing the hard things in the big moments, I thought India was good today," Karthik said.
India now require just one more victory from their remaining three matches to be certain of reaching the knockout stages of the event.
Karthik believes his former side are well placed to enter the semi-finals in pole position at the head of the standings, with South Africa, New Zealand and Australia the other three teams to join them.
"I think with this win and with what happened yesterday (Australia defeating New Zealand), we are locked in for the four semi-finalists," Karthik suggested.
"It could be a tournament where it has been decided early and it looks more likely it will be the case unless something extraordinary happens, which I personally don’t think will happen," he said.
"We have the four semi-finalists, it’s just a matter of who is going to be No.2, No.3 and No.4," Karthik said.
"I think we pretty much know who No.1 is going to be, so it is going to be a question of who is going to be facing India and who No.2 and No.3 are," he said.
"It is not being cocky, its just with their quality of cricket they are playing," Karthik added. (UNI)