Ashes 2017/18, 5th Test: What went wrong for England

Joe Root's England failed to show resistance against Steven Smith & Co. as the visitors succumbed to another crushing defeat by an innings and 123 runs on Monday.

The hosts won the fifth and final Test comfortably and claimed the series 4-0 to retain the iconic Ashes urn.

Pat Cummins, who claimed eight wickets in his maiden home Test, was named the Man of the Match, while Australia captain Steven Smith was awarded the Compton-Miller Medal as Player of the Series for his 687 runs at 137.40.

Australia and England will now lock horns in the fifty-over format of the game as they will play a five-match ODI series beginning January 14.

Now, let's find out what went wrong for the touring party in the fifth and final Test at the SCG.

#5 Absence of a genuine all-rounder

During the entire Ashes series, England missed Ben Stokes as Moeen Ali could not play the role of a genuine all-rounder for the visiting team.

In the presence Stokes, England's batting runs deep. However, his absence meant that the touring party had to reshuffle their entire batting order and it did not work well for them.

Ali, who has been England's go-to man in the past, looked completely out of touch in Australia.

Before the just-concluded Ashes series, whenever bowling failed Moeen Ali, he had his batting skills to fall back on.

An excellent and skilful player of spin, Ali scored two tons in the series against India and cemented his place in England's batting order at five.

But in Australia, Ali has been totally ineffective as a bowler and a batsman too.

Riddled by injuries, Ali was dismissed 7 times by Nathan Lyon in the series and his problems against the short ball were exposed by Australia's high-quality pace attack.

#4 Letting Australia score big

Joe Root won the toss and opted to bat as the English batsmen posted 346 in the first innings.

Although the English batsmen did benefit from the advantage they received right at the outset, their bowlers failed to contain the Australian batsmen.

Usman Khawaja displayed nerves of steel as he scored a graceful 381-ball 171 and Shaun Marsh continued his blistering form in the five-match Test series.

The 34-year-old scored 156 to bring up his second ton of the series to lead Australia to a massive first innings total of 649/7 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Interestingly, Shaun and Mitchell Marsh followed in the footsteps of the legendary Waugh brothers as they became the latest pair of brothers to score a century in the same innings of a Test match.

The Marsh duo combined forces to put up a 169-run stand in just their fourth innings together and ensured that the hosts won the high-profile Test series 4-0.

#3 Ineffective bowlers

Stuart Broad and James Anderson claimed just one wicket each as the most experienced Test fast bowling pair looked completely ineffective against Australian batsmen.

Overall, England's fast bowlers failed to make a collective impact as they let the hosts post 649 runs and claimed just 7 wickets.

Broad, in particular, has been quite unimpressive in the Test series Down Under.

The 31-year-old, who dismantled the Aussies with figures of 8-15 at Trent Bridge during the 2015 Ashes, registered the worst-ever figures of his 112-Test career during the third Test at WACA.

Before the start of the Ashes series, Australian spinner Nathan Lyon had predicted that the series may end careers of England players and it seems that the prediction might just come true for Broad.

The 31-year-old, whose last five-wicket Test haul came 22 appearances ago in January 2016 at Johannesburg, conceded 121 runs at Sydney and claimed the wicket of out-of-form Australian opener Cameron Bancroft.

#2 Top-order failure

England's top-order once again failed to give their team a good start and lay a solid foundation for a huge score.

Although Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman and James Vince got off to good starts, they failed to score big.

England scored a competitive 346 in the first innings but Australia went on to score 649/7 before declaring their innings.

The pattern continued in the second innings as well and the visitors' top order could not hold the fort and England were all out for 180, losing the match by an innings and 123 runs.

Cook, who had redeemed himself with a score of 244 at the MCG, was unable to make the most of a solid batting wicket as he scored just 49 runs in the match.

James Vince, who was a surprise inclusion in England's squad to tour Australia, scored 83 at the Gabba, but could not do enough to prove his mettle in the high-profile Ashes series.

Vince's vulnerability outside the off stump was exposed by the Australian bowlers as in his eight innings he scored just 159 runs.

#1 Failure to convert starts

England reached just three half-century scores in the match - two in the first innings and one in the second. However, it was the failure to convert them into hundreds that hurt the visitors the most in Sydney.

England's batting failed to show resolute every time it was put to test - gradually at first, and then all at once. Even well-set batsmen surrendered their wickets.

Even a single substantial score from Joe Root (83) or Dawid Malan (42) would have proved to be a differentiator.

Not even a single partnership passed 50 in the second innings.

The visitors' lower order was taken apart by Australia's bowlers as England lost five wickets for 36 runs before being bundled out for 180.