Playing Piyush Chawla was a masterstroke

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At the end of the round-robin league I must say that except for a few games it was a pretty boring one.

One does understand that the weaker teams need to get games but to wait for about a week in to the world cup to get bigger games going could be a bit difficult for the paying public and that could be a very valid reason for a poor turnout in the early stages. Hopefully that will change from now on.

The rain has also played a spoilsport in some of the evening games and I strongly hope that once Super Eight starts the rains don’t push a strong team out of the tournament.

The teams are divided into two groups in this phase and although in this format the difference between the teams is not very big, India seems to be in a very strong group.

It is not a very fair idea that you don’t carry points into the Super Eight because I think in a World Cup every game is important and it is rather unfortunate that India’s fantastic showing against England will have no bearing in the most crucial phase in a big tournament like the World Cup.

India played a terrific combination and for me the master-stroke was playing Piyush Chawla in that squad.

The England players looked like they had never seen spin before and looking at them play in Colombo, I get a feeling that without Kevin Pietersen there will be early finishes in the test matches in India.

India’s spin duo of Harbhajan and Piyush will hopefully be persisted with in the rest of the tournament and the addition of Ashwin will certainly make it a formidable bowling trio especially on the Premadasa pitch, where matches will be played regularly in the Super 8’s.

India is in a tough group consisting of Australia, Pakistan, South Africa. They will have to play out of the skin to beat them.

It is not impossible because the Indian batting has looked solid so far and the bowling has also gone up the ladder against England.

What has also happened is that these teams have been beaten by India in similar conditions in the knock-out phase of the World Cup last year and India will surely carry that confidence with them.

The second group is probably on a lighter side than the other and England will surely heave a sigh of relief that both India and Pakistan with terrific spin bowlers are on the other side, although they will have to deal with Sunil Naraine and Ajantha Mendis.