India's former selector, cricketer, and now commentator Saba Karim, returned after spending about 25 days on the ground where India will start its campaign in the Champions Trophy against Bangladesh, the pitch where India will take on Pakistan and the stadium where Team India will take revenge for its defeat in the Test series against New Zealand, admitted that it would have been better if the team was selected after knowing about the pitch.

What Saba Karim revealed about the pitch is shocking. ILT matches were played at the Dubai International Stadium and after seeing what Saba Karim saw there during commentary, he said that there was no need for five spinners in the team because grass is being left on the drop-in pitch of Dubai where there is less chance of the ball spinning and fast bowlers have got more help in ILT matches as well.

Eyewitness' questions on selection

Saba Karim said in the conversation that there is a big flaw in the selection of the team which can prove to be costly for the team. Saba Karim, who returned after commentating on the ILT matches at Dubai International Stadium, said on the issue of selecting five spinners that there was no need for so many spinners. Saba said that during commentary I saw that fast bowlers got a 60-65 percent advantage on the pitch because grass is left to keep the pitch tied which goes in favor of seamers. Nothing special was seen for spin bowlers during the ILT matches. Saba also said that even though ILT was a T-20 format tournament, the pitch is the same, and different balls are used from both sides, so the ball is also less old. Taking 5 spinners on such pitches where the conditions are favorable for fast bowlers is beyond comprehension.

Prediction of the team that will win the tournament

New Zealand and India are being seen as the teams that will win the tournament. On the matter of selecting a team, Saba said that New Zealand has a good bowling attack considering the pitches of Dubai and Pakistan and their batsmen have shown by scoring runs in the tri-series that they can score runs in the sub-continent and that too with full authority. India and New Zealand are equal on the issue of all-rounders but whatever Saba saw in Dubai forced him to say that the slow bowling option of the Kiwis is making them better than other teams and in his view, New Zealand can win this tournament. Saba Karim termed the Pakistan team as very average and said that he does not see the host team in the top four.