Where to now for England?

The fire that burned deep within the previous Australian team to complete a five-nil Ashes whitewash was kindled in part by the fashion in which the England players toasted their unexpected 2005 series success.

There was the open-top double-decker bus ride through London to Trafalgar Square from which some heavily inebriated cricketers waved and ultimately wobbled.

There was the Royal reception at Buckingham Palace months later at which senior members of the England team received OBEs and the rest of the lads MBEs for their efforts.

While this prompted sniggers among the republicans and even raised eyebrows among a few outspoken monarchists, it clearly inflicted a scar on the Australians who were most closely associated with the whole episode – those who had allowed the urn to change hands.

So much so that barely a year later, as Ricky Ponting’s team sought emphatic redemption with a fifth successive win in the final Test in Sydney, Shane Warne couldn’t help but have a dig at England’s Paul Collingwood who was drafted in for just one fleeting appearance in the 2005 campaign. But who was included among the chests upon which the gongs were later pinned.

“You got an MBE right?” Warne taunted the English all-rounder as the final coat of whitewash was applied. “For scoring seven at The Oval?”

Certainly today’s public celebration of the urn’s return at the Sydney Opera House forecourt was conducted with sufficient professional panache as well as symbolic Aussie egalitarianism to stymy too many revisionist accusations of hubris.

But there’s no doubt that Alastair Cook’s touring party, still smarting from the whipping it continues to receive across traditional and social media, will have noted the acclaim piled upon the Australians and use those images to drive them towards the 2015 Ashes series in the UK.

Even before Prime Minister Tony Abbott ascended the podium and congratulated Michael Clarke’s troupe, maligned England batsman Kevin Pietersen announced his intention to be part of that next series.

The fact that Pietersen chose Twitter rather than his bat to convey this message will further rile his many detractors, given that he spent significant periods of the Test series gone giving the impression he would rather be somewhere – anywhere – else.

Consequently, the form in which the help he has generously offered manifests itself will be decided by England’s new selection panel.

If they share the view of former Ashes-winning skipper Michael Vaughan OBE, then Pietersen might not just be part of the re-cast England set-up but an authoritative voice within it.

Vaughan used a column in the UK newspaper The Telegraph – an article later retweeted by an obviously appreciative Pietersen – to suggest that one way to actively re-engage the often divisive South African-born batsman might be to appoint him as Cook’s deputy.

“It would be a huge loss if this England management cannot get two more years out of Pietersen and let him lead them to playing the brand of cricket we want to see,” Vaughan wrote.

“I guarantee if they give Pietersen responsibility they will win more games, win them quicker and gain new fans.”

It’s contrary to the view of other former England captains, most notably Geoffrey Boycott who had also demanded the class of 2005 return their national honours after being humbled 5-0 in 2006-07, who have called for Pietersen to be axed from the Test team forthwith.

But the public has voted overwhelmingly with Vaughan, with a poll conducted by UK cricket broadcaster Sky Sports finding Pietersen should be retained for the coming northern summer series against Sri Lanka, along with most of those who failed in Australia.

From the team that was humiliated so utterly on the final day of the fifth Commonwealth Bank Ashes Test in Sydney, it was deemed that opener Michael Carberry should be dumped for Joe Root, wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow return his spot to former vice-captain Matt Prior, and pace bowler Boyd Rankin be discarded in favour of Graeme Onions.

Indeed, it was the absence of Onions from the original England touring party that caused heartburn among many commentators and critics even before Cook’s team had departed Heathrow airport.

If the majority of the failed line-up from the disastrous Australian campaign, which is already being derided as England’s worst effort in Ashes history, is retained then the greater challenge is to repair their collective mindset so badly dented by Clarke’s remorseless team.

The positive news for England supporters, and those who believe resolutely in the monarchy and its honours regime, is that it’s difficult to imagine morale and fight can dissipate any further than was apparent last Sunday afternoon.

“So how are you going to write about that?” ex-Australian captain Stephen Waugh AO asked of still shell-shocked journalists shortly after England’s capitulation in less than 30 overs.

Asked to provide his suggestions on how that scale and sense of surrender might be translated into words, Waugh showed that his talent for ‘mental disintegration’ remained undiminished.

“It was like watching one of those David Attenborough nature documentaries,” he mused after barely a moment’s thought.

“You know, the ones where the wildebeest just keep running into the river even though they’re aware it’s full of crocodiles.”

And that’s an image the Australians will doubtless invoke when the celebrations have ceased, and planning for the next Ashes campaign begins.