'Soul-searching begins' for English cricket, says Silverwood

England coach Chris Silverwood admits hard questions must be asked after his dreams of leading an Ashes-winning tour were promptly crushed by Australia.

When Silverwood replaced Trevor Bayliss as head coach two-and-a-half years ago, he placed regaining the urn Down Under at the top of his wish list.

But after just 12 days of on-field action, there is nothing left to play for but damage limitation in the last two Ashes Tests following a humiliating MCG defeat on Tuesday.

Silverwood and captain Joe Root are sure to come under plenty of scrutiny with England going backwards as a Test team over the past couple of years.

They have lost nine and won just one of their last 12 Tests.

But there are no blindingly obvious coaching or captaincy candidates.

And it seems change at the top would not turn Haseeb Hameed, Rory Burns or Zak Crawley into battle-hardened opening batters or cure a chronic lack of fit quicks to back up Mark Wood. 

"I think at the end of this tour there will certainly be reflections on a lot of things, on producing players who can come through and compete at this level and win back the Ashes for us," Silverwood said.

"That will mean working hard with the group of players we have here but also looking at other things as well.

"I don't think right now is the time to go into that but certainly, there will be questions asked later on."

A faltering production line of players lies at the heart of England's travails and Silverwood suggested he sympathised with those who believe the priorities of the domestic game had tilted too far in favour of limited-overs cricket.

"Obviously white-ball cricket now plays a huge part (in the UK) with the Blast, the Hundred and all the white-ball cricket that is going on, but I do sense there is a real drive for Test cricket," he said.

"I think the love is still there and we've got to keep trying to produce those players." 

It seems change at some level is inevitable.

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison and director of men's cricket Ashley Giles are two other names who may find themselves under the microscope.

Pleading his own case for more time, Silverwood said: "I do feel like I am capable of leading this team to winning things and that's what I'm going to stay focused on. 

"That's all I can do, I'm not going to worry about my job.

"I don't want to be going back having lost 5-0. I want to win games over here."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena