"They're Just Taking A Punt": Ex-India Star Slams New Zealand Pitches After 2 Low-Scoring Games

The first two ODIs between India and New Zealand have been low-scoring affairs, with rainy and overcast conditions spicing up bowling-friendly wickets at Auckland and Wellington. India have narrowly won both contests, with their second-string pace unit performing beyond expectations. Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj and Auqib Nabi have taken advantage of the conditions to put India 2-0 up in the series. However, despite India's 4-run win in the second ODI, former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu criticised the pitch conditions set up by New Zealand.

Rayudu, a six-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winner, stated that New Zealand's strategy could be based on winning the toss and bowling, something that hasn't worked out so far as Mitchell Santner has lost six out of seven tosses in the series.

"They are just taking a punt on the Indian team batting first and getting their bowlers into the game early. But sometimes luck doesn't favor you, and I don't think it's the right way to go because you just need to prepare a track that is going to be similar in both innings; otherwise, you are going to face such kind of problems,"Rayudu said on Cricbuzz, as quoted by Sportskeeda.

Former India spinner Murali Kartik further chimed in that perhaps New Zealand should appoint a proxy captain in order to get rid of Santner's bad luck at the toss.

"They have to send some proxy captain. Virat Kohli had Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma alongside me because Faf wasn't winning anything at home. Out of the seven tosses, Santner has lost six. He has only won one. They need to send a proxy captain because they are making tracks like this," Kartik said.

In both of the ODIs so far, India captain Shubman Gill has won the toss and opted to bowl, and the decision had a major impact on the game.

In the first ODI in Auckland, New Zealand managed to score just 180. In the second ODI in Wellington, they fared worse, getting bowled out for only 134.

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