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England's cricket camp now accept that they picked the wrong team and misjudged conditions as they faced a second Test drubbing against Australia in Adelaide.

England's camp admit, in hindsight, they should have picked a different team for their calamitous second Ashes Test.

And they also concede that they misjudged conditions for the day-night Test in Adelaide.

They expected more swing. And less spin.

They got more spin. And less swing.

And now they're facing another crushing defeat to Australia on Monday's last day when, set 486 runs to win, they resume at 4-82.

"The wicket is obviously turning," England's bowling coach Jon Lewis said after Sunday's play.

"And we felt the ball would move around under the lights a little bit more than it has.

"In hindsight, you might say we should have picked a different side.

"But at the time, we felt like we picked a team that would win the game."

But at the time, England ignored the warnings of Adelaide Oval's head groundsman Damian Hough.

On match eve, Hough was asked if England would make a mistake by not playing a specialist spinner.

"Yeah, I think so. History says that the pitch will spin," Hough said.

England then named a team without a specialist spinner.

Which led to the sight of England paceman Ollie Robinson bowling some off-spin on Sunday.

"It wasn't in the plan," Lewis said.

"However he has done it before, he has done it at Sussex."

In fact, Robinson had bowled 26 overs of off-spin for Sussex in his career.

"It (off-spin) is something he did as a kid," Lewis said.

"He started as a batter and an offspinner, so it's not an alien skill to him.

"It's something he can do. It's something he practises not often in the nets but he does practice it.

"It's another string to his bow and I think he actually bowled it okay."

Lewis likened England's bowlers to a racehorse returning from a spell.

"The guys are, I would say, short of a gallop in terms of we didn't get any middle time in the warm-up games," he said of a preparation ruined by Queensland rain.

"(But) the guys should be getting better by now."

Yet the remain upbeat, relatively speaking, despite the prospect of going two-nil down in the five-Test series.

"At the moment I would say the guys are in pretty good spirits in the context of what has been happening," he said.