Sri Lanka highlighted that Australia lack a cutting edge ahead of the Ashes, says SkySports pundit Bob Willis.

Australia arrived in England focused and raring to go for a summer of cricket but after just two days of competitive action they find themselves in limbo in Leicester.

After two sub-par Twenty20 displays, Ricky Ponting's side can look forward to kicking their heels for a couple of weeks which is not what the squad needs at all ahead of the Ashes.

On the plus side, it will help the players to get one-day cricket out of their system and allow them to focus on the five-day art but without some reasonably competitive matches I think they will lose some of their edge.

I don't see how loads of nets and team bonding is going to help the tourists at this stage and the rest of the Test players don't even arrive in the country for another eight days.

There has been some talk about arranging a four-day match for the tourists - a classic example of us doing the 'jolly decent thing' - but actually I don't have a problem with that because England want to beat the best side that Aussie can produce.

Brett Lee will need to up his game before the Ashes because he's looked there for the taking so far on this tour. I was very surprised to see him selected against Sri Lanka after disappearing all over South London against the West Indies.

Likewise Ponting has some questions to answer. He didn't have his tactics spot on against Sri Lanka, which augurs well for England for the Ashes. I've never rated him as more than an adequate captain and his choice of bowlers at particular times certainly didn't help his side at Trent Bridge.

Lee was cannon-fodder yet while other captains would have rotated their bowlers in one-over spells, Ponting allowed the batsmen to get into a rhythm by bowling his fast bowler in two spells of two. I don't think that did him any favours.

Of the sides I have seen so far, South Africa and Sri Lanka look the most impressive. Nobody could really slog Muttiah Muralitharan on a regular basis and now Ajantha Mendis has appeared on the scene as well opposition batsmen will find scoring runs tough.

They are two key weapons in Sri Lanka's armoury and if Lasith Malinga can get it right on a regular basis too then that adds up to a difficult attack to dominate.

Kumar Sangakkara, who is a very articulate and intelligent guy, has picked up the captaincy in a seamless transition and his side looks as though it is travelling very well to me.

Mendis' variation is more subtle than Murali's and the fact that he is new and a lot of players haven't seen him will obviously help him as it does anyone who is fresh on the scene.

The important thing about him is that he attacks the stumps virtually all of the time so if you miss the ball you're either lbw or bowled. He doesn't bowl wide of the stumps very often or turn the ball so much that it is going to miss the stumps.

There's no doubt that the World Twenty20 has been excellent entertainment so far and is certainly catching the public's imagination but I believe it will also sound the death knell for 50-over cricket.

The middle overs are a bore and although the ICC have tried to spice it up a little bit with powerplays the format is just not entertaining enough; as we've seen in successive World Cups, there are too many bad games.

The Botham-Willis plan, which was to have one man outside the circle for the first 10 overs, two for the second, three for the third, four for the fourth and five for the fifth which is simple for everyone to follow was ignored.

I wouldn't be sad to see the 50-over format of the game go if it meant Test cricket is preserved unsullied. Having three formats of the game - Test, 50-over, and Twenty20 - blurs the boundaries a bit. The more distinct the two forms of the game are the better.

I remain worried that Kevin Pietersen's participation in the Super Eights despite his Achilles injury could come back to haunt England during the Ashes campaign.

Yes, it would be great if England won the tournament but people will have much longer memories about them regaining the Ashes. If that means Pietersen sits out the rest of this current tournament, then so be it.

Considering that they've lost Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce it's terrific to see Ireland qualify from the group stages and their success underlines just how little progress Bangladesh are making.

They have been part of the family for a decade or more and should be knocking over Ireland, who fully deserve all the plaudits that come their way. I wish I could say the same about Scotland but their exit coupled to their failure to make the next World Cup is as worrying as it is disappointing.

Click here for Sky Sports cricket TV schedule