Australian captain, Tim Paine believes his senior players had let the team down throughout the series after the side faced a 5-0 whitewash against England for the first time ever in any format. England had won bilateral series against Australia as they thrashed the visitors by 1 wicket in the last ODI.
Australia tried to pull things back in the second innings after scoring a low total of 206, they fought their way back as they reduced England to 114 for 8 but they were not able to remove Jos Buttler from the crease. It was Buttler's unbeaten 110 which saw England over the line much to the delight of their fans.
"That one stung," Paine told Sky Sports. "Not as difficult as Trent Bridge but we've certainly been taught a lesson by a world-class outfit."
"I thought we were in trouble to be honest at the half-way mark. But our bowlers came out and committed to what we spoke about really well in that first hour we were out there.
"But once put under pressure whether with bat, ball or in the field, we've folded a bit, if we're completely honest."
"We could have got a couple more wickets. That would have been nice. I thought we had them under pressure. Rashid and Jos played really well but we didn't get enough balls in the right areas at those two in particular and they batted well. And when we've been under pressure in this series we haven't responded as well as we would have liked so that's a lesson we've got to learn."
Tim Paine's own form has come under the scanner as his batting average was only 7.20 in the five ODIs he played against England in the series and he feels his role of captaincy would be questioned after the whitewash in the series.
"I haven't thought about it to be honest," he said. "All I know is I was coming here to do this series and I've said a few times before when you are my age it's a bit foolish to look ahead. Certainly I am really looking forward to captaining the Test team and continuing how I have been playing in that format. But where I go with the rest of my cricket is something we will discuss in the coming weeks.
"If I'm honest, I've probably let the pressure get to me a bit this series. When you're not performing things are hard at international level."
"Even today we see Carey and Short - two really good young players - play really well after our senior players probably let us down," said Paine. "Billy Stanlake and Ashton Agar... there's some real talent in this group. If we can get our best team on the park with some of these young players, anything is possible.
"I've heard a few times that this team doesn't have a plan, or it doesn't know where it's going, but we have a clear direction. We know we are a long way off the mark at the moment but the World Cup is not for 12 months and we know when we get our best team on the park, playing our best cricket, we are going to be right in the thick of it."
In the month of July, Australia will travel to Zimbabwe for a triangular series against Pakistan and Zimbabwe, starting July 1 where Zimbabwe will play against Pakistan in the opener of the series.
(Inputs from Cricinfo)
