England head coach Brendon McCullum has conceded that England misjudged their preparation for the Ashes after losing the series to Australia. The acknowledgement came in the aftermath of a hard-fought third Test in Adelaide, where England were bowled out for 352 while chasing a huge target of 435 on the final afternoon.

"Obviously disappointed. We came here with high hopes, high ambitions, and lofty goals, and we've been outplayed across three Test matches. They have outplayed us with the bat. They have outplayed us with the ball and they have outplayed us in the field. You've got to cop it sweet when you don't quite achieve what you're hoping to," McCullum said while speaking to TNT Sports.

"We knew coming down here that Australia is a very strong team in their own conditions. We thought we would be competitive and that we would be able to seize some pressure moments, and we haven't been able to do it. With the ball, we've not quite been relentless enough with our accuracy and challenging on the surface in the areas we need to. With the bat we haven't scored enough runs, we haven't quite found the tempo we need to operate at either. And in the field we have let opportunities go."

The defeat sealed a 3–0 lead for Australia and ended England’s hopes of reclaiming the Ashes at the earliest possible point. When asked whether his side was caught off guard, McCullum didn't think so. 

"No, I don't think it's caught us by surprise. I think we anticipated it, but I think there's ways that you can deal with it, and there's ways where you can try and block it out, or there's ways where you just lean into it, accept it, and just see it as a privilege that you're in a position to be able to try and entertain and to be able to capture eyeballs and to do people proud."

"And I think we were so determined to do that. We had such high expectations and hopes for this series that we just almost – it just constrained us a little bit. So, we weren't able to deal with it. That's something we're going to have a look at."

England showed greater resilience with the bat in Adelaide than in the opening two tests, which McCullum thought was a positive sign.

"I do feel like the last day and a half, two days, it's probably been our best cricket, and that's because we've just played. I feel like the previous sort of nine days, we were so caught up and so driven to achieve something and succeed that we've almost got in our own way, and we've stymied our talent and our skill and our ability," he said.

"It's only been the last two days we've kind of let go and just played that we've actually competed and probably had our best two days of the tour, so there's a lesson in that," McCullum stated.