England bowling coach David Saker has criticised the set up of the Test match pitches in New Zealand.

The 46-year-old Australian said that the lifeless tracks in Dunedin and Wellington have effectively restricted the bowlers influence on the games, which has resulted in some tame action.

"It's not a great spectacle for Test cricket when you're playing on lowish, slowish wickets," the Daily Mail quotes Saker as saying. "It makes it really hard both for batsmen to score and for bowlers to prise their wickets out.

"You end up having to prepare for errors. You've got to be patient with what you bowl and hopefully you build enough pressure so that the batsman makes a mistake. Unfortunately, it's not so much down to the bowler's skills.

"I don't know whether it's something New Zealand Cricket have done or whether it's just the way the wickets are, but from where I'm sitting, I like to see the ball go through. If you watched the Twenty20 and one-day games here, they were played on very fast wickets that produced good cricket. They did go through, but the two Test wickets have been the opposite."

The three-match series is 0-0 with the second Test match falling victim to rain and being ruled as a draw.