England captain Ben Stokes said his side hurt their own chances as the Ashes series ended in a 4-1 defeat, pointing to repeated lapses after strong positions, including in the final Test in Sydney.

"Australia are an incredible team," Stokes said at the post-match presentation. "They've had outstanding performances with bat and ball. But we also have to be honest with ourselves and admit we did some damage to our own cause. We know we can play better than that, but full credit to Steve [Smith], Pat [Cummins], and the Australian team. They were exceptional across five Tests."

The England captain admitted that the final Test played out to the same script. "We probably needed another 100 runs, and we allowed Australia to get about 100 too many in their first innings. If you look at that wicket on day five, 200 runs would have put us in a great position," assessed England captain Ben Stokes after the game.

At the post-match press conference, Stokes offered a more reflective assessment of the series.

"Where we are at the moment is an interesting place for us as a team," Stokes said. "What we managed to achieve in the first two, two-and-a-half years was very good, and then we wanted to build on that. We wanted to grow as a team, and be even more consistent than we were in that.

"If anything, we've done the opposite of that. We've started losing more. We've not won the big series that we want to be winning, and when a trend is happening on a consistent basis in the way that you don't want it to happen, that's when you need to go back and look at the drawing board, and make some adjustments that you think are going to get us back on the path of success again."

Stokes felt teams now had found a way threough their methods

"We are now playing against teams who have answers to the style of cricket that we have been playing over quite a long period of time now," Stokes said. "In the first couple of years, teams found it difficult to try to come up with anything to combat the way that we played, but now teams are coming up with plans that are actually standing up to a certain style of cricket that we want to play.

"You've seen in moments throughout the series that when we've been positive and we have taken a few risks, it has paid off in our favour. But there's moments in games throughout the series, and even before that, where we've almost gifted the flow of the game back to the opposition by a decision that we think is the right one to take out there.

"And when you come up against a team like Australia who know how to play cricket out here like the backs of their hand and you're also adding to your own downfall then you're going to end up losing the series 4-1 like we have done.

"We've just not been able to be anywhere or deliver the quality of cricket that's required to win Test matches, in particular out here in Australia. That's with bat, ball and in the field. It's just been so far below the level that this team can operate at, and it's been quite consistent throughout every Test match.