So far so good!

© Shailesh Nigam, Varun Khanna (for respective articles)

The T20 Worldcup tournament moves to phase two today. The first phase was largely to accommodate upcoming nations, to allow them to show what they are made of and stake their claims to be amongst the elite. These preliminary rounds are bound to throw some surprises and this time there was no exception. Netherlands almost created an upset but England and Pakistan proved too good to succumb. Bangladesh however, wasn't so lucky and allowed Ireland to sneak through to next round. Australia may want to consider themselves unlucky, but they really didn't have enough fire power to even cross the first hurdle. The fact that they were in the pool of death didn't help either.

For India, the situation is so far so good. Two matches, two wins and Aussies are back home. They've found a suitable replacement for Viru in the top order and Zak has had a good outing yesterday. The only worry is that the team hasn't been tested fully yet. Wonder, how they will handle a 30 for 3 in five or 60 for 6 in eight! They are yet to face and survive the bowling from Murlis, Ajanthas and Daniels of the world and they are yet to face Gayles, Jayasuriyas, AB Deviliers and Mccullams fire with the bat. Six batsmen and 5 specialist bowlers seems to be their mantra till now. Dhoni clearly feels that the regular bowlers are a necessity in this tournament, otherwise there is no reason not to go with 7 batsmen in what is considered to be an out and out batsman's game.

Another dirt of concern surrounding Indian team is this whole Sehwag issue. I think it was necessary to take Viru to London even if his injury was known. At that time Indian team didn't have any option at the top. Plan A - Search for someone to replace him in the warm-up games and if replacement is found, send Viru back to bring in his replacement (as allowed by ICC rules). Plan B - If a suitable replacement could not be found then retain Sehwag, after all even a 60%-70% of Viru is good enought to demolish opposition mentally if not on the the field. Now that they have successfully experimented with Rohit at the top, Indians can send him back and get a replacement. Mission accomplished!!! Well done!!! Wonder what is the fuss about!!! The Indian Media should either back out or support the Indian team in the testing times ahead. Enough damage has been done in garb of "Indian fans need to know...".

India, Srilanka, South Africa and New Zealand appear to be the four well rounded teams for now. While Pakistan, West Indies and England will have to lift their game several notches if they want to harbour any thoughts to reach the semis. Ireland, should just feel happy to be enjoying company of these teams and make the best of three more matches they are getting to play. All the games in Super eight guarantee entertainment, but the T20 format also guarantees uncertainties. One only hopes and prays that the best team wins!

Varun Khanna