India, June 7 -- Thirty-five wickets in three days. England all out for 140. New Zealand dismissed for 113 in the first innings. Balls keeping low from one end and climbing awkwardly from the other.

What should have been a celebration of Lord's 150th Test has instead turned into a debate over the quality of the pitch, with former England captains Michael Vaughan and Michael Atherton delivering scathing verdicts on the surface used for the England-New Zealand clash.

Vaughan, writing in his column for The Telegraph, described the wicket as a "shocker" and said it was among the most difficult batting surfaces he could remember seeing in England.

"Sadly, the Lord's pitch has been a shocker," Vaughan wrote. "We haven't had a pitch like this...