Shane Warne has promised there will be root-and-branch post mortems going on in Australia following their Ashes defeat to England.

While Andrew Strauss targets the world number one Test spot and Stuart Broad gets touted as the next Andrew Flintoff, Australia have been left to lick their wounds after a second Ashes defeat in only four years.

Despite making eight centuries to England's two and dominating the bowling statistics, Ricky Ponting's men failed to produce the big moments when they mattered as the urn returned to English shores.

Ponting's captaincy will be questioned: Why wasn't Nathan Hauritz picked for the Oval Test? Why was Marcus North bowling at Monty Panesar in Cardiff?

Warne promises that tough times lay ahead for his countrymen, and he insists the buck must start way above Ponting's head.

"The Ashes series is an important one to lose. When you suffer defeat, the whole big thing happens and it begins at the top," Warne told Sky Sports.

"Cricket Australia will be looked at; did we make the right selection? The selectors will feel the heat; did we pick the right teams?

"Then we'll be looking at who can improve the side, is the captain right? Have we got the right players? All those things will get looked at.

"To lose at Lord's for the first time in 70-odd years hurts Australian people. We love the banter, we love coming to England but to lose over here is such a big thing.

"The reaction back home is 'I can't believe we lost this series', so the whole system of Australian cricket is now going to come under scrutiny."

Warne believes Australia's inexperience was one of the factors that cost them victory, however he feels Australia's emerging stars will have learned a lot from the summer.

And he feels the pain of watching England celebrate their win will motivate the entire squad to put things right next time out.

"This Australian side hasn't played a lot of cricket and a lot of them are playing their first Ashes series," he added.

"I think there's only two or three players in the Australian side that have played in an Ashes series before.

"It's not a good way to start, but the good side of it is that they now know how important an Ashes series is.

"I'm glad Ricky Ponting kept the players down on the field to watch England celebrate and once they started going off he took the team up. The cameras showed the players sitting on the balcony just looking.

"I'm sure England were in that position two years ago in 'the series we don't like to talk about' and I remember sitting up there myself in 2005.

"I just couldn't wait for the next Ashes series. I hope - and I'm sure it's true - that they are there thinking they want to play in the next one.

"What happens between now and the next Ashes series is crucial."