"We will drill into the players that we want to go bigger and better, and that really does start from tomorrow," said Stand-in captain Paul Collingwood.

"The responsibility is not just on my shoulders for that – all the players who have been involved in the Ashes and all the players from the outside have got a responsibility to keep the ball rolling.

"When we have toured Australia in the past, if they are on top of you they stay on top of you and make it very hard for you to come back.

"We are now in a position where we have won the Ashes series, and it would be great if we could stay on top of Australia.

"We have got to put the hard yards in again – it is a quick turnaround. But it starts from now, and we hope we can keep the ruthlessness we have had throughout the Test series.

"We have ambitions but we are not going to get carried away with ourselves.

"We know what we can achieve. But we have to take it step by step and we can get up those rankings.

"We have played some good cricket over the past seven weeks or so. But we have played some average cricket at times – and we have to get that consistency right."

"I am realistic where I am as a player at the moment," he admitted.

"I was disappointed with my form over the last three Test matches but I have still got a lot to give in all three forms of the game.

"I will be working as hard as I can to keep achieving my goals, looking forward to putting in the hard yards, what I need to do as a player both technically and mentally – and I look forward to that challenge."

He said: "I am Twenty20 captain at the moment – and until I am told I am not Twenty20 captain, that is how I will perceive myself.

"The way I look at it is we have six Twenty20 games before the Twenty20 World Cup next year

"I am still ambitious enough to want to be captain then.

"I loved the Twenty20 World Cup. It was only three weeks’ work, and in the future I still want to continue doing it in short stints.

"It is not too mentally draining if you do it like this and you can then get away from it and concentrate on your own game again."