Don't know why England were bowling a barrage of short balls: David Warner

Australian opener David Warner says he is baffled with England's tactics to bowl short in the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval here, adding that whatever the tourist bowlers throw at them, the home team batters will play the deliveries on merit.

England's barrage of short-pitched deliveries didn't really work on the opening day as Warner missed the century by just five runs in the second Ashes Test on Thursday, while Marnus Labuschagne made a patient 103 before he was LBW in the opening session on Day 2 on Friday.

England pressed all five of their quicks -- Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes -- to rattle Australia but to no avail.

Midway through the first session on Day 2 on Friday, Australia were batting on 272/3 from 107.1 overs with stand-in skipper Steve Smith on 41 and first Test 'Player of the Match' Travis Head on 11.

"That's a tactic they have obviously tried to put through to us. I don't know why they were doing that," Warner was quoted as saying by sen.com.au on Thursday. "But for us you have to play each ball on its merits. Obviously here it is short square, so you have to back yourself to have a game plan and stick to that."

Warner said that England should have changed their tactics if they were not working, but they persisted.

"They mix up their fields as well with different field placements and then from your perspective it's about how you're going to adapt to that situation. You get into positions where you are almost in one-day mode as well, there are gaps in front of the wicket. A couple of flat-bat shots. Once you get one or two boundaries away and you start leaking, you have to change tactics. But they didn't do that.

"It worked into our plan a bit, and the ball gets softer."