England's batting form not ideal: Anderson

Vice-captain Jimmy Anderson says the form of England's batsmen isn't where it should be after another worrying early-tour collapse in Adelaide.

James Anderson says any concerns England have with the bat are tempered by the bowling attack. (AAP)

New vice-captain Jimmy Anderson is cutting England's batsmen some slack - for now.

But Anderson concedes England's patchy batting form isn't ideal less than two weeks out from the Ashes opener against Australia.

The tourists collapsed spectacularly on Friday against a Cricket Australia XI in their Adelaide tour game - they lost 7-45, including four wickets for three runs.

But after setting the CA XI 264 runs to win, England's pace bowlers made amends by tearing through the inexperienced Australians, who slumped to 7-25 before reaching 7-70 at stumps.

Anderson says the batting collapse will be addressed post-game.

"It's not too much of an issue now - as long as they're scoring runs in that first Test at the Gabba," Anderson said.

"It's not ideal, is it? We are hopefully getting it out of the way before the Test series starts.

"But it's something we have got to look at, probably have a chat about it after the game as to why it happened and what we could have done differently to stop it happening - and stop it happening again."

Anderson said any unease at the batting was tempered by the performance of the bowlers against the CA XI.

With paceman Jake Ball ruled out of the game because of a sprained ankle, Chris Woakes took 4-17, Craig Overton 2-10 and Anderson 1-12 from seven overs.

"It was outstanding," said Anderson, who has officially been named as vice-captain to Joe Root for the Ashes tour, given regular deputy Ben Stokes remains in England awaiting the outcome of a police investigation into a brawl in Bristol in late September.

"The three seamers, I thought, bowled really well.

"We knew we had a really important job to do especially being a bowler down with Jake Ball being injured."

Anderson said he would likely be rested from England's next tour game, a four-day fixture against the CA XI in Townsville starting next Wednesday.

The first Test against Australia starts November 23 in Brisbane.