Questions mount for an England team that already looks out of answers

The mood in the Fox Sports commentary box said it all.

On the fourth evening, Australia were turning the screw with Joe Root and Ben Stokes at the crease under the lights battling to save the second Test in Adelaide.

"Maybe Australia will look to take the extra half hour," came the observation from the broadcast pointing to official regulations that allow a team to request extra time if they believe they can win a game if given the opportunity of more overs to do it.

It is a helpful quirk of the rulebook and if the umpire deems it worth it helps wrap up matches quickly, often saving everyone the chore of coming back for a just few overs a day later.

This is usually reserved for use when tailenders are batting with no hope of saving a game. It is not put into practice when a team has seven wickets remaining as England did on Sunday night.

Such Australian confidence is hardly misplaced, however, given how wretchedly poor England have been with the bat so far on this Ashes tour.

A pair of collapses in the first Test in Brisbane ensured the tourists travelled to Adelaide as they so often have - one down. Another here saw England fall from 150-2 to 236 all out in the first innings and, coupled with a dispiriting bowling performance on days one and two, made defeat, just as it was at The Gabba, inevitable once more.

Jos Buttler made them work for it at least, his 25 off 207 balls a remarkable rearguard effort in the context of both the series and this match having struggled so visibly with the gloves.

His dismissal in the third session having batted out the bulk of the first and second sparked what would be the end and a 275-run reverse.

What is most galling of course is that these are things we have so often seen before. Opening batters who can't see off the new ball. A top order bereft of confidence. Root then rallying single-handedly only to see his wicket ignite a further collapse through the middle and lower orders.

Test cricket - or any cricket for that matter - is about scoring big runs and no more so is that the case than on Australian soil where the largely hard and flat wickets favour batting and batting big.

After two Tests the hosts boast the five biggest individual scores as well as the only two centuries. Root alongside Dawid Malan have passed fifty but have again failed to turn solid starts into meaningful finishes.

It all leaves Root as captain with all too familiar questions to answer.

"First of all we need to learn and learn fast. We can't make the same mistakes that we have made so far," he said reflecting on the game. "We've got three massive games now, with the Ashes on the line. If that's not motivation enough, I don't know what is.

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"The disappointing thing about this week is that we made the same mistakes as last week in Brisbane. We just can't afford to do that. That's the frustration.

"In the first innings in particular, we were a little bit short with the ball. We need to be a little bit braver, get the ball up there and accept we're going to be driven.

"You're looking at half a metre at times. If you look at how many times we beat the bat, it can be frustrating."

The selection decisions Root has made that have been called into question largely revolve around his bowlers. In the batting ranks this lineup - as bad as it has been collectively - largely feels as good as it's likely to get. Those in reserve, the likes of Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley, have all been dropped for not being deemed good enough at differing points before.

Root, at least publicly, believes the talent is there and feels it is more of a matter of application in the face of a mounting challenge in this series.

"With the bat, we have got the ability," he added. "I don't think that Australia are that much better in these conditions as the scoreline suggests. I'm convinced we've got what we need to win Test matches over here but we're not going to if we keep missing chances and don't give ourselves an opportunity to get into the Test match with the bat. We've got to find ways of building those partnerships, getting in, making big contributions.

"That's something we'll have to do very well at Melbourne. I was absolutely gutted to get out on Sunday night. I should have been able to turn up today, put the pads on and lead by example, so I'm bitterly disappointed in myself."

Buttler endured a nightmare week with the gloves shelling three chances as well as falling for a first innings duck, but, to his credit, showed admirable character in stepping up where others faltered and offering at least some semblance of resistance in England's second innings.

Root believes his under-pressure wicketkeeper offered a template for the kind of mentality that is needed from his team on the remainder of this tour.

"Everyone is absolutely devastated for him, having had that mindset and that strength of character in what has been quite a difficult week for him," he added. "I'm very proud of the way the guys fought today. The attitude and the desire, that's how we need to go about a whole match.

"But we can't just leave it to the last day to try and pull off an enormous feat like we had to do today."

After making the same old mistakes the same old questions are being asked of this England team.

With the next Test in Melbourne starting on Sunday, there is not much time for Root to find the answers.