Australian coach Darren Lehmann apologises after his team's poor performance in Ashes
"We have been poor, we have been outplayed by a superior opponent, and as coaching staff, players and selectors we fully accept the blame for our losses at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge," Lehmann said in his column published on the Cricket Australia website.
"We don't walk away from that responsibility, and we have been as up-front as we can over the past few days to explain that's the case rather than try to find excuses," he said.
"Not only do we want to be accountable for our efforts, but on behalf of our team I want to apologise for the manner in which we have lost, especially to those tour groups and individual fans who paid to travel to the UK to watch us and to the millions more tuning in at home," the former Australian batsman said.
He said: "We understand how disappointing the series has been, and I can reassure you we are doing our very best as a group to identify the areas in which we need to improve in order to ensure we get better as a team."
Australia are trailing the five-match series 3-1.
England has already won the Ashes after defeating the world champions in the fourth Test.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
