Pietersen and Kohli show the way

Amazing watching the likes of KP and today Virat Kohli in full flight. When a batsman is really on top of a bowling attack it's incredible to watch them dictate the field and then place the ball where the fielder was before. Or in some cases ignore the field and just hit the ball for six.

I didn't get to see much of Pietersen's recent knocks but I saw the highlights of Kohli's and it really was sensational - the very best any of the commentators had seen so that's the combined spectating of the likes of Mark Nicholas, Tubby Taylor, Mark Slater and Tony Greig. It was essentially batting like the final stages of a Twenty20 innings for an extended period of time leaving one of the best ODI bowlers in the world, Lasith Malinga, with figures of 7.4 overs, 1 for 96. And also leaving Dilshan who scored 160 not out (off 165 balls) way short of the man-of-the-match award.

Kohli ended up with 133 not out off 86 at a strike rate of 154 to give India a chance of going through to the tri-series final if Australia do them a favour and beat Sri Lanka in the final group match. To get the bonus point they needed to win inside of 40 overs and did so with 20 balls to spare, scoring 321-3. Pretty special - why can't they do that every time?!?

Champions League Highlights and Lowlights

Some great batting recently in the Champions League, particularly from David Warner. Personally I have no problem with the likes of Warner and Pietersen playing left and right handed....bowlers don't have to tell the batsmen which way they want to spin or swing the ball, so why should a batsman who is capable of batting either way advertise what he intends to do in advance?

There's also been some good bowling - Alfonso Thomas' death bowling for Somerset in their last match was great to watch. Apart from odd eye-catching performances though, in general the standard of the cricket has been pretty poor overall I would say, particularly some of the bowling and fielding, which only adds weight to those that argue Twenty20 is "dumming down" cricket.

What isn't in doubt is how much the players want to win. Alfonso Thomas said that of all the competitions they entered this year, the Champions League is the one they want to win, and if you look at Virat Kohli, his eyes are nearly popping out of his head. He played a great innings yesterday, but I find it hard to believe that he can be thinking with a cool head when so hyped up. Gavaskar asked yesterday "if there was a better 21 year-old batsman in the world" and I agree he's extremely talented, but I'm not sure Twenty20 is going to help him realise that talent....certainly not in Test cricket anyway.

Who knows what impact Twenty20 will have on player skills long-term, but I do worry that basic cricket skills are being lost which will reduce the quality of Test cricket and therefore the audience for it.

Disecting India's performance

Where do I begin?

1) Poor preparation - the wrong balance between rest and play for the West Indies series

2) Lack of warm-up fixtures for the rested players

3) Inconsistent selection - where was Murali Vijay, a like-for-like (almost) replacement for Sehwag, who would have taken the attack to England and possibly force them to change their initial bowling plans.

Where was Virat Kohli? He had a good tour of the West Indies but was jettisoned for Yuvraj Singh, a nothing bowler, a flat track bully of a batsman and a shadow of his old fielding self (before injuries).

4) Poor bowling - if the pitch is not doing anything and if the ball is not doing anything then you dry up the runs by bowling a consistent line outside off-stump and force the batsmen to make the mistake. This is something that England and South Africa have done, and something that India should have yesterday.

5) Abject field placings - that said consistent bowling needs the captain to set the right field. Dhoni not having a third-man for a large part of the innings gave England far too many cheap runs. Not having an orthodox fine leg didn't help either as the bowlers sprayed it. Also even for part-time spinners, you need to have an attacking field to create mistakes, yesterday it was like being at a dairy with all the milking that was going on.

That's just a few areas for development. The last two can be remedied for Edgbaston, but I'm not holding my breath that they will.

Kohli ready to replace Dravid

Virat Kohli claims to be ready to replace Rahul Dravid in India's Test side....it will be interesting to see how Duncan Fletcher and MS Dhoni handle the retirements of some top players over the next few years.

Dravid avoids World Cup euphoria

No doubt Rahul Dravid could have been at home in India earning loads of money for commentating or writing about the World Cup. Instead, he's left the country altogether to go and play for the MCC in Dubai and score the match-defining century that helped win the match for MCC. He'll be fighting hard for his international Test place but having seen Virat Kohli bat in the World Cup he could be struggling. Both Kohli and Raina are nipping at his heels but to me Kohli looks the classier player, especially in relation to Test cricket as he looks like he has the tighter technique. And of course Yuvraj has been revitalised by this World Cup.

An Indian Test line up of Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Tendulkar, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni gives extra bowling options and would strike fear into all opposition bowling attacks....Dravid has his work cut out but he's going about fighting for his place in the right way.

The initial days of the World Cup

So far we've learnt:

- Sehwag is very dangerous when he comes off
- But not just to the opposition - his running is so poor it puts at risk his team mates and himself
- Kohli is a class player in the mould of Tendulkar so capable of playing that role if the little master is dismissed early
- Sangakarra and Jayawardene are superb and crucial to Sri Lanka's chances at this World Cup
- Lesser nations like Kenya are more prone to batting collapses
- Ray Price looks like a good opening bowling option for Zimbabwe - not surprising really as he is rated the 4th best ODI bowler in the world.

So, nothing learnt at all really as we knew all that already....