"I hope India don't feel the pinch of Rishabh Pant's absence" - Saba Karim

Former Indian cricketer and selector Saba Karim feels India's inexperienced wicketkeeping options could be exploited by Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which begins on February 9.

Rishabh Pant has arguably been India's best Test batter for quite some time now. However, he suffered a ligament tear in his knee after a horrific car accident and has been ruled out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

With the hosts just having KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan as wicketkeeping options and with both being uncapped, Saba Karim feels they are a weak link for India.

He told India News:

"One spot that Australia would want to exploit is that of the opposition wicketkeeper. Rishabh Pant has changed the face of Test cricket for India and I hope they don't feel the pinch of his absence."

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Credit goes to Virat Kohli for instilling belief in Indian team: Saba Karim

Saba Karim credited former Indian captain Virat Kohli for making his team believe that they could beat Australia in their backyard. Australia are yet to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2015, losing 2-1 in each of their last three attempts.

On this, Karim stated:

"Ever since we travelled to Australia for the 2014-15 series, Team India have been able to make a name for themselves. The credit for this goes to Virat Kohli because he instilled the belief in the team that be it in home conditions or away, Australia can be beaten."

Karim is also hopeful that there are no dustbowls created as he feels Test cricket needs long games and exciting finishes to keep the fans on the edge of their seats. He added:

"We need to take Test cricket to the top and for that, it's important to prepare pitches where Test matches last for 3-4 days at least. No use making rank turners straightaway. We need to prepare good pitches that start to turn on Day 3 and that will surely bring excitement into the game. We have to take the difficult route and try to win if we really want to become the No.1 team."

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Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.