Ashes inquests begins on test surrender

England's only crumb of comfort from the 150-run defeat in Perth that secured the urn for the hosts was a maiden Test century from Ben Stokes – his 120 the first three-figure score by an England batsman in the series so far.

Captain Cook said: "I'm sure there will be a lot of inquests. There always are when you lose.

"It is a tough dressing room to be in. We haven't had enough people in form and we have been punished for it.

"They just outplayed us. We haven't managed to score enough runs and whenever they needed a partnership they got it.

"There is always a balance between risk and reward and our shot selection has let us down."

Cookwas full of praise, however, for Durham's Stokes.

"It was a fantastic innings – full of character on a tough wicket with those cracks, it's always daunting to see them. He put them out of his head and I thought it was an outstanding hundred," the skipper said.

Looking ahead to the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney, Cook was reluctant to talk about any changes to the England side in the wake of the Ashes defeat.

He added: "We've got to go there and try to win the games.

"It is very early to say what we do with the side. There are always calls for change when you lose. We have the players to do it – it's about delivery."

Asked if England's senior players still had the necessary hunger for Ashes battle, Cook said: "It is still there. Sport is pretty brutal if you don't get your skils right and we haven't got them right in these three games.

"The simple fact is we haven't delivered out in the middle and you have to givea lot of credit to Australia."

Cook admitted he was now facing the biggest challenge of his career and added: "We've got some good men around us and we are going to need them in the next few weeks."

Australia captain Michael Clarke admitted to a few nervous moments as Stokes repelled them in the morning.

"I think Ben Stokes deserves a lot of credit for the way he played. To come out and make a tough hard-fought hundred he deserves a lot of credit.

"It certainly wasn't given to us easy but we expect that. We've known from day one that playing against England's always tough. They've got a lot of good players and we've seen that throughout this series."

Clarke vowed he and his players would push for another series whitewash in the final two games.

"Our goal is to get back to being No.1 team in the world," he said. "No doubt we'll celebrate hard tonight and enjoy it but we've got two more Test matches. We'd love to win 5-0."

England team director Andy Flower rued his side's performance with the bat in particular although he was quick to pay tribute to Australia's bowling attack.

"Of course the guys are very disappointed to have lost the Ashes with two matches still to go, but there are still two matches to go and we're going to have to focus on that pretty soon."