"The biggest reason to include MS Dhoni is to give an outside perspective"- Saba Karim

Former Indian wicketkeeper Saba Karim explained why MS Dhoni has been included as a mentor for India's T20 World Cup squad. He feels Dhoni will be able to give his valuable advice in terms of how the decisions are seen from an outside perspective.

Saba Karim also stressed how decisions like selecting the playing XI will be something that MS Dhoni might have his say on. However, as too many cooks spoil the broth, Karim wants the Indian team management to define Dhoni's role properly. He feels it will help avoid a clash of opinions.

Speaking to Sports Tak, Saba Karim is hopeful of the partnership between Virat Kohli and Dhoni working off the field as well.

"I think the biggest reason to include MS Dhoni is sometimes you need an outside perspective to say whether the strategies you have made, whether the XI you are playing is right. When you have an experienced player like MS Dhoni who is experienced, has been a world champion and is playing cricket actively, his contribution is important."

"A word of caution will be to define MS Dhoni's role clearly because you don't want controversy. We all can hope that the pairing of Kohli and Dhoni off the field will work well and provide India success," Saba Karim stated.

Saba Karim picks his contenders for the T20 World Cup

Saba Karim believes West Indies, India and England are the top contenders to win the T20 World Cup. He also has been impressed with the performance of South Africa and New Zealand.

Since the World Cup is being played in the UAE, Karim has picked India as the favorites to win the T20 World Cup and Rishabh Pant as their X-factor.

"I think it is West Indies, India, England and a toss-up between South Africa and New Zealand. West Indies have won the World Cup twice but because the tournament is played in the UAE, I will place my bet on India. I think Rishabh Pant will be the X-factor for India. I wish the perfromances that he has given in Test cricket, he can replicate those in T20 too," Saba Karim concluded.

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24th in Dubai.