It's obviously hard for Australians to bat in England. Especially now because they are so rarely exposed to English conditions. Our top 3 who are exposed to the new ball had a reasonable series. There is plenty to criticise Smith for his idiotic shot during the second innings at Trent Bridge and as mentioned his stupid dismissal at Cardiff but where was the middle order.
If we use Tommys standard then roots first century doesn't count because it was batting first on a flat wicket and his second doesn't count because Australia had failed so badly and he had anti scoreboard pressure on him. What a bad series Joe Root had when we arbitrarily remove all his runs.
I've been saying this for a little while, but that's a big factor. In fact other than South Africa most sides are shithouse outside their home conditions.
Australia in Australia, where the bounce is generally true to steep, thrive. Some call our pitches flat yet our bowlers tend to run through them.
England however don't generally do well out here, despite arguably better batting conditions. They're used to slower conditions of England. Much like the Indians thrive on the poor bounce of their home pitches.
It's not so much flat pitches, it's that teams don't generally adjust to conditions outside their home ones. Alot of that is the amount of T20/ODI/tours in general that are jammed in. It's rare that sides prepare properly in foreign conditions (England did in 2010/11 and it helped enormously). And that's where at least some of Aus problems lay - couple of games on relatively flat pitches against poor opposition where the Marshes were belting tons. Not a great prep for the pitches of tests 3&4.
I'm surprised the Kiwi's are only playing one warm up match tbh. It's rare sides are ever prepared out here, we run through em at the Gabba and the series is just about over.
