Cricket: Clarke praises England after thrashing

Michael Clarke. Photo / Getty Images

Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke has called for a thorough debrief of the one-day team's recent performances after they took another thumping against England for an embarrassing 4-0 series loss.

England won the fifth and final ODI yesterday under the Manchester floodlights for their 10th straight one-day win.

It's Australia's worst ODI series defeat in 40 years.

Clarke's side may now lose their No 1 world ranking with England facing South Africa in a one-day series from next month.

The Australians had just one batsman, George Bailey, featuring in the top six run-scorers in the series, while England's No.7 batsman was never required.

"We need to play better cricket," Clarke said.

"We need to sit down as a team and have a look at our performances over the last 12 months and areas we need to get better.

"It certainly wasn't preparation. I thought our training was outstanding and we played some really good cricket in the couple of warm-up games but we have no excuses.

"A lot of credit needs to go to England. They've outplayed us in all four matches, they've been very consistent, their bowlers have bowled with good patience and discipline and their batters have made runs.

"We haven't done both. We didn't have anybody make a big score as a batter, we lost a lot of early wickets throughout the series and we didn't execute our skills as well as you need to.

"It's been good to have a look at guys, no doubt," Clarke added. "It's good to give them a taste of international cricket.

"Any chance you get to play for Australia in one-day cricket you're pushing for test selection, I guess."