Winning in England will be Australia's next goal - McGrath column

Australia beat England in the Ashes because they played good, solid Test cricket.

They did the basics well and deserved their 4-1 series victory.

You look at the Australia team compared to what England thought they were going to come up against with Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon - and the only one they've really had to face is Starc because of injuries to the others.

But the guys that came in really stepped up and you've got to give credit to Starc for the way he stepped up and performed. He really took the load to finish the series as the leading wicket-taker with 31. It was incredible.

He was supported well by Scott Boland and Michael Neser and as an attack it was just good, solid Test cricket. They bowled good areas and built pressure - and that is everything you need to do at Test level.

To be honest, I don't know if England took them for granted a little bit and if they thought it isn't the same attack and they thought it was going to be easier. However, Australia were just tougher and gave England nothing.

Saying that, the big turning moment in the series for me was when Travis Head was promoted to opener in the first Test after Usman Khawaja was struggling with back spasms.

It just set a whole different tone to Australia's batting – it got them going and the positivity then just flowed down the rest of the order. Those things were massive.

Alex Carey also put on an absolute masterclass coming up to the stumps to Boland and Neser - it was brilliant.

Then if you look at the fielding and the catching – they say catches win matches and it is very true. The amount of catches that England dropped, even if England caught them, this series would have been completely different.

It is those basic things - that mental toughness and just playing good, solid Test cricket day in, day out and not letting the other team have a sniff - that's what Australia did well.

The next goal for this Australia side will be winning in England in 2027.

We have drawn the past two series in the UK 2-2 to retain the Ashes, so it has been job done, but we haven't won there since 2001.

It is a big thing for Australia to go there and actually walk away with the win.

Australia definitely have the team to win.

There won't be too many retirements between now and then. Australia will want Cummins back and bowling well, and they will want Hazlewood back. England have also seen what Boland is capable of doing.

The way that Head is going about things is exceptional, so it'll be interesting to see how he goes out there.

I know last time it was David Warner and Stuart Broad had a bit of a hold over him at the top of the order.

That could be a key difference though. England had Broad, they had Jimmy Anderson, they had some senior bowlers there.

For me, Australia should have won in 2023, but England in their own backyard have a different self-belief.

They know how to play in those conditions and have the home advantage.

A win would be massive for Australia. They've won everywhere apart from India and England.

There are a lot of players there - Steve Smith, Cummins, Lyon, Starc - that have never won in England.

It will be tough, but I'll probably come out with my normal 5-0 whitewash prediction before the series - I can't help myself.

I'd like to think Australia will win for the quality of the players they have.

That is their next goal and their Everest you could say.

You wouldn't expect too many changes to the Australia side and approach, but England need to rethink their blueprint of how they do things. They are half way there.

To be honest, what I saw in England in 2023 is the same as what I've seen now.

They had a way of play, and they were proud of that, and they thought that was the way to go and they were setting a new standard, but in the back of my mind I didn't think it was going to work.

You have to have what they wanted but with mental hardness, resilience and toughness combined with it.

I saw them going out and playing and backing themselves – whether it is playing without fear or playing without pressure – that is two completely different things.

I thought it was more playing without pressure and if they play a bad shot, there was no accountability.

If one of our guys played a bad shot, they were nervous to come back into the changing room because of how the rest of the team would think about them and how they'd let the rest of the team down.

This series has been a big wake-up call. I think it has finally hit home that you need players where you can build that mental toughness and resilience and you need players that enjoy that pressure and can absorb that pressure and go out and play. It is not pretending that pressure isn't there.

But I wouldn't be quick to get rid of Brendon McCullum.

The England and Wales Cricket board want to go through and look at this tour and look at what's wrong, but there needs to be the other side of what they've learnt and what are they now going to put into place.

If they want to continue the way they are, it is not going to work and maybe it is time for Baz to move on, but if he thinks he saw what the potential is and knows what he needs to add to that to make a reality, then maybe he is the guy to continue on.

There were positives. Jacob Bethell looks a class player at number three, while Josh Tongue needs to take the new ball a little bit more often because he was exceptional.

Joe Root is a class player and Brydon Carse is an absolute workhorse with the effort he put in.

There are positives that have come out of it, but there are a lot of things they need to do differently.

This defeat will hurt, but hopefully they'll learn a lot from it and be more mentally resilient and mentally tough.

If they can bury that thought, they will be a tough team moving forward.