England cricket legend Graham Gooch believes the team's "disastrous" performances in the Ashes were the result of inadequate preparations for the series.

Australia maintained their ownership of the urn, which has now spanned across five editions since 2017-18, by triumphing 4-1.

The tourists' hopes of a first away series win since 2010-11 were over within just 11 days of play as repeated batting collapses resulted in comprehensive defeats in the first three Tests.

Ben Stokes' side avoided a whitewash by winning a lightning-quick fourth Test in Melbourne, which spanned just two days, though they were then beaten by five wickets in the series finale in Sydney.

England's preparations for the matches have come under scrutiny, and Gooch – who played 118 Tests for his country including 42 against Australia – feels the decision to only play one official warm-up match in November (against the England Lions) was ill-advised.

Speaking exclusively to Stats Perform, Gooch said of England's series: "I think it's been a disaster from the start. There were huge questions raised, quite rightly, about the preparations for this series. 

"An Ashes Down Under only comes around every four years. In terms of English and Australian cricket, it's the Holy Grail. Going Down Under and winning is tough, and in my book, preparation is everything.

"I think you've got to go back to who agreed the itinerary for this Test series, who signed off on that... i.e. how many preparation games we were going to have. The one-day series in New Zealand just beforehand [in October and November] is terrible planning, in my book. 

"The Ashes is the most important thing. We are defined by Ashes cricket. That's what excites our fans. That's what our cricket relies on, how we do in the Ashes."

Only once in the 21st century has either team won an Ashes series after losing the first Test (Australia in England in 2005), and Gooch says the hosts' dominant eight-wicket victory in Perth set the tone.

"On all the tours I've been on since 1978 as a player, as a coach, as a manager in 1998-99, you've got to start well in Australia," he said. 

"If you get off to a good start and show your colours early on, you play well. Maybe you win the game, maybe you don't win and you draw the game, but you don't lose and you give a good performance.

"That sets you up for the rest of the tour. If you go down in the first match, I think it's a long way back, and history stands the test of time on that.

"If you don't get the right prep, your batsmen have not got match experience. You can have as many nets sessions as you like, but you only get confidence from scoring runs in the middle.

"And bowling in the nets is not like bowling in a match. You'd have to question whether our bowlers were match fit. For a lot of the series, there was a lot of short and wide bowling. Those basics weren't there, and that's what people were disappointed in."

And while Gooch respects the way captain Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum have tried to implement an aggressive batting style, he said England needed to show more respect for the difficult conditions in Australia.

"I have really enjoyed what Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have tried to do, to play aggressive cricket, to set the agenda. I don't have any problem with that," he added.

"But in Test cricket, you have to play the conditions, not the occasion.

"You can't play the same way all the time. You have to be able to leave the ball, and our players never really grasped that throughout the series. 

"Outside off stump, if you can't cut it, you leave the ball. You don't play with half a bat, which England were doing a lot of the time, because it’s suicidal.

"That was proven over those first few matches. We didn't, in my opinion, respect Test cricket and the way you have to play it and the way you have to bat."