Ah, but bacteria that were cloned from a single initial bacterium also develop antibiotic resistance! IOW, if you take a single bacterium & place it into a nutrient solution that has first been sterilized in an autoclave, and let it split into a new colony of clones of itself, and then apply selective pressure to this colony over many generations, it will still eventually "adapt" to thrive in the new environment.
This is due to brand-new mutations appearing in the colony and getting selected for/against. The "inherent ability to adapt" in your sense was not there initially.
Bacteria are easy to study. This is an advantage in evolutionary studies because we can see evolution happening in the laboratory. There is a standard experiment in which the experimenter begins with a single bacterium and lets it reproduce in a controlled environment. Since bacteria reproduce asexually all of its descendents are clones. Since reproduction is not perfect mutations happen. The experimenter can set the environment so that mutations for a particular attribute are selected. The experimenter knows both that the mutation was not present originally and, hence, when it occurred.
Richard Harter, Are Mutations Harmful?, TalkOrigins
Playing the Devil's Advocate here, I can set the environment for changing a solid into a liquid and then back again in my kitchen using simple plastic trays; isn't the keyword in this and all such experiments the reliance on a suitable chance environment for the natural world to be so explained?
Seems that if you are directing the mutation and doing the selecting it would also appear that -- whether you intended it or not or would even admit it for that matter-- you have actually lurched straight into making the case for Intellegent Design!