Where it went wrong for Australia

Australia's Ashes campaign never quite got out of first gear, with the exception of an anomalous victory on a quick and bouncy WACA pitch. ESPNcricinfo looks at what went wrong for Australia, and how they can avoid the same mistakes in the future.

Australia's top-order batting was a major concern throughout the series © Getty Images Enlarge

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Top-order turmoil
You can't be 3 for 2 on the first morning in one Test, and be all out for 98 batting first in another, and expect to win the Ashes. Yes, the conditions were a bit tough, yes England bowled exceptionally well, but that's the challenge of Test cricket. Australia's top-order failure against quality new-ball bowling set the standard for the rest of the team - and what a disappointing standard it was. Too many times men who should know better felt outside off stump and edged behind the wicket; at the MCG all ten first-innings wickets fell to catches behind the stumps.

Leadership lapses
This is the biggest series in Australian cricket and the captain and vice-captain had to stand up - just look at England, led by Andrew Strauss (247 runs at 41.16) and Alastair Cook (577 at 115.40). For Australia, Ricky Ponting has made 113 runs at 16.14 and Michael Clarke has managed only 148 at 21.14. Ponting has been jumpy and has never looked like making a big score; Clarke has got bogged down a couple of times and apart from a second-innings 80 that failed to save the Adelaide Test, hasn't made a major contribution. It's nowhere near enough from the team's leaders and No.3 and 4 batsmen.

Filling the spin bin
After two years of grooming Nathan Hauritz, who has performed solidly in Tests, the selectors dumped him on the eve of the biggest series. Suddenly, Xavier Doherty was the surprise slow man expected to help Australia regain the urn. Two Tests later, Doherty had three wickets at 102, and the selectors went for the even stranger choice of Michael Beer, except that he didn't get to play in Perth or Melbourne, where Steven Smith didn't take a wicket in 18 overs.

No pressure, no pleasure
One of the side-effects of poor batting is that bowlers feel under the pump. Wickets are so desperately required that plans can be forgotten and every delivery is meant to be a wicket-taker. That's the trap Australia's attack fell into at times, especially in Adelaide, where Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle and Doherty all went at more than four an over. Andrew Strauss said after the MCG Test that he rarely felt stifled by Australia's attack, as he had in 2006-07. The batting was Australia's bigger worry, but that the bowlers took only 16 wickets in the first two Tests was a damaging byproduct.

Ready? Set? No
England arrived four weeks before the first Test, and played three first-class matches to acclimatise and get their men in form. When England landed in Perth, Australia had only just got home from India and were about to start a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. Eight of the 11 men who lined up for the first Ashes Test at the Gabba took part in the one-dayers, while England were honing their form in the longer-format. And Australia's mistakes stretched back further; Doug Bollinger arrived in India on the eve of the first Test in October having warmed up with nothing but Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa, and promptly injured himself in the Test and hampered his Ashes preparation.