'We Don't Want To Change Anything': Rohit Sharma Confident Of Dealing Without Hardik Pandya In Knockout Stage

India's daunting winning campaign in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023 has given enough confidence to skipper Rohit Sharma to continue with the same combination in the knockout stage of the marquee tournament.

India have suffered a major blow to their thundering campaign as vice-captain and all-rounder Hardik Pandya was ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle injury. In his absence, India are limited to five bowling options and six batters but Rohit is confident of making up for the loss as they did in the last three games against England, Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively.

India will finish the league stage at the top of the table irrespective of the results of the other matches in the megaevent.

"Not to get too ahead of ourselves has been the talk in the dressing room. Couple of big games coming up. We don't want to change anything," Rohit said in the post-match presentation on Sunday.

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"If you look at how we have played in the last three games, we have adapted better. We were put under pressure against England. But we got a decent score and then the seamers did the job. We lost a wicket in the first over. Then got runs and then the seamers did well," he added.

Rohit was in all praise of his batter and bowlers after a clinical 243-run victory against South Africa at Eden Gardens in Kolkata to stretch their undefeated run to eight matches.

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Batting first, Virat Kohli's unbeaten 101* and Shreyas Iyer's 77 helped India to 326/5 in 50 overs powered by late cameos from Suraykumar Yadav (22) and Ravindra Jadeja (29*).

"We needed Kohli to go out there and play the situation. We then knew we had to keep it in the right areas and let the pitch do the rest. [On Shreyas Iyer] Even if the faith hadn't been repaid, I would have still stuck to them. We need to keep the trust. It can't be done everyday. For Shami to comeback the way he has, shows the mindset. The last two games has shown what Iyer is capable of. Gill and myself have been batting together for the majority of time now. We let the instincts take over. We don't preplan anything. We just assess and play accordingly," Rohit said.

In response, Jadeja's five-wicket haul coupled with Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav's two scalps each wrapped South Africa's innings for 83/10 in 27.1 overs.

"Jadeja has been very good for us. Playing in every format over the years. Today was a classical case as to what Jadeja is for us. Came out at the death and scored vital runs. Then picked up wickets. He knows his role and knows what the expectations from him," the captain said.

India will next lock horns against Netherlands at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on November 6.