"We're just very disappointed, we've let everybody down," said Hussain.

"We're just not performing; we're beaten, we're battered, we're bruised and it's not good enough."

But Hussain said he would not quit as captain after the disappointment, adding: "I'm not going to walk away from this team in their present state and give it to some young lad."

"It would be good for Nasser Hussain - I'd just concentrate on my batting and it would be the easiest thing for me to do - but I will not take that option against that lot."

It was a view endorsed by the new England and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan, who said: "He is still the man to lead England."

"It's no excuse but you have to look at the way they are bowling - they're playing out of their skins," he went on.

"There are no free runs out there but that is what playing Test cricket is all about.

"We've lost the Ashes now so all we can do is look at them and learn from the last two games."

There is now a break in the Test series while the two sides take part in the first half of a one-day triangular tournament, also involving Sri Lanka.

Two Test matches remain, beginning in Melbourne on 26 December and Sydney on 2 January.