India moved to 2-0 in the five-match ODI series against New Zealand following victories at Auckland on November 4 and Wellington on November 7, both decided under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. The hosts managed 180 runs at Auckland and were restricted to 134 all out at Wellington, with Indian bowlers Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj and Auqib Nabi making full use of the challenging conditions on offer.
Ambati Rayudu, who won six IPL titles during his playing career, has questioned the approach taken by New Zealand’s ground authorities. The former India batter contended that the pitches were deliberately constructed to give the home bowlers an advantage when New Zealand batted first, rather than providing surfaces that would behave consistently across both innings.
“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 as quoted by NDTV Sports.
Why has Rayudu criticised New Zealand’s pitch preparation?
Rayudu’s criticism underscored a key principle in international cricket: pitch preparation should not favour one team based on the batting order. He stressed that balanced surfaces allow both sides to compete fairly, regardless of which captain wins the toss and chooses to bat or bowl.
Murali Kartik, the former India off-spinner, also addressed New Zealand’s difficulties in the series. Kartik attributed some of the hosts’ struggles to captain Mitchell Santner’s poor record at the coin toss, noting that Santner had won only one toss out of seven matches, losing six times across the series.
“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.
India captain Shubman Gill won both tosses and elected to bowl first in each ODI, enabling the Indian pace and spin attack to exploit the deteriorating pitches. The strategy proved decisive as New Zealand’s batting order struggled against the conditions that worsened as each match progressed.
