New Zealand trail India 0–2 in the five-match ODI series following back-to-back defeats in the first two matches.
Former India batter Ambati Rayudu strongly criticized New Zealand’s pitch preparation in the ongoing five-match ODI series against India.
Rayudu claimed that the surfaces in Auckland and Wellington were intentionally designed to give the Kiwi bowlers an unfair early advantage. He termed the strategy a "punt" that relied entirely on New Zealand winning the toss, bowling first under seamer-friendly conditions, and skittling India out early.
Rayudu argued that the pitches did not offer a fair balance and failed to behave similarly across both innings. The first two ODIs saw low totals and quick breakthroughs with New Zealand managing only 180 and 134 all out, heavily aiding seam and swing bowling.
"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 during a show on Cricbuzz.
Black Caps skipper Mitchell Santner had lost six out of seven tosses across the T20I and ODI series so far. While the hosts lost the T20I series 3-2 to India, they are currently trailing 0-2 in the ODI series.
Speaking on the same show, former India spinner Murali Kartik hilariously suggested that 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 remarked.
Indian captain Shubman Gill won the toss in the first two ODIs. Young pacers Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj and Auqib Nabi took advantage of the conditions in Auckland and Wellington to put the visitors 2-0 up in the series.
The third ODI of the five-match series is slated to be held in Hamilton on Tuesday (November 10).