Lunch on day 5 at the gabba

Who would have thought that England's best preparation for this test was playing all those matches against Bangladesh?

I had the displeasure of watching England smash a lifeless Bangladesh around for what seemed like 7 consecutive summers, at the time I thought it would do England little good. How wrong I was.

It was this effortless batting that kept them sharp when their batsmen would have to bat for hours on end against an Australian attack that seems to be aspiring to Bangladesh style work.

Imagine if all their warm ups were against Pakistan, England wouldn't have known how to handle batting for a whole day without losing a wicket, this would totally confuse them.

Australia have just played India, so they are also used to bowling for hours on end without a wicket.

Also, it got them used to playing in front of a hostile crowd, which might come in handy for the rest of the series.

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