Yeah a bit of that, for sure. Also just not having a plan - they're just running in and thinking on their feet.
I'd love to know what the bowling coaches are doing.
It seemed to me that they had a plan to attack the openers, particularly Cook, but then things became a bit vague after that, as if they thought "if we get the skipper, we can just mop up the rest".
Of course this is a huge over-simplification, and the question remains about why they don't seem to have a plan for Root, Englands best batsman at the moment.
They've got the swing and movement wrong on 2 counts: the first is the bowlers being unable to control it very well (as previously mentioned) but also a complete lack of knowledge about how to bat in these conditions. Going hard at the ball is bound to fail when the ball is swinging and seaming. Root has been the perfect example of playing the ball late.
The groundstaff have played a blinder in preparing swinging, seaming pitches that have completely flummoxed Aussie batsmen and bowlers.
I can't envisage McGrath, for instance, being unable to master the conditions, but he really was a thinking bowler.
Perhaps the most damning indictment is that the Aussies had pretty good prep, knew about swing and seam, and yet seemed totally unprepared for it.
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