Steve Smith blogs on being named Australia captain, Michael Clarke's farewell and playing positively at The Oval.
I'm going to start off by responding to some of those reports that came out after we lost the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.
I don't think there is any split between the squad. I don't know where that's come from. Everyone's tried to remain as upbeat as possible despite our disappointing performances.
The stuff about the wives and girlfriends is, quite frankly, rubbish. Personally, I enjoy having all the families around the group. They know when to let the boys do their work and know when it's best to get involved.
I think all those reports are just really poor excuses. At the end of the day we lost because of our disappointing performances on the field. We let ourselves down.
There were all sorts of emotions getting thrown around the dressing room after we lost at Trent Bridge. We were all just really disappointed to know that we couldn't go to The Oval and still be able to win the Ashes.
The most disappointing aspect is the manner in which we've played – it's not what we've come to expect from ourselves as a group.
Our batters haven't stood up and adapted to the conditions here and that's really let us down. Our bowlers haven't been able to put the ball in the right areas to build enough pressure.
England have done those things really well – especially their bowlers, who have been extremely disciplined and have made us work really hard for our runs. At the end of the day they've played well and deserved to win.
We spoke as a group last week about making sure we're moving forward from now on.
It's been a very disappointing series but we've still got a lot to play for at The Oval. We want to keep playing a brand of cricket that's exciting but is also going to bring us success. We've had a couple of bad games but we've got to move on and keep trying to get better every day.
Rod Marsh told me I was the next Test captain when we were in Northampton. He came up to me and Dave Warner and said that we were captain and vice-captain after this series.
The first person I told was my girlfriend Dani. It came out pretty soon after that – I don't think I even had a chance to tell my parents, but it didn't take very long for them to hear about it. They probably saw it first on Twitter!
It's an honour and a privilege to be able to captain Australia. It's going to be an amazing time going forward and I'm excited about all the challenges that come with it. I'm sure it's going to be a rollercoaster journey but hopefully there will be a lot more ups than downs.
Michael had a couple of days off in London while we were playing the tour match but I bumped into him this morning. For him there will obviously be quite a few emotions running through his head. There may even be a bit of excitement about coming to the end and starting the next phase of his life.
I think all the boys are looking forward to this week and hopefully we can play some good cricket that will send Michael out on the note he deserves. He's been a terrific player for a long period of time and a very good captain as well, so we want to send him out on a high.
I know we've copped some criticism for how we've batted recently but I still think we have to be positive in these conditions.
If you look at the last two Tests, the guys that have scored runs were the ones that actually took the game on. Ian Bell scored run-a-ball fifties in both innings at Edgbaston, Joe Root was scoring around a run a ball at Trent Bridge.
In English conditions with the ball moving around a bit, you need to make sure your defence is in order and you're leaving the ball well, but when you get a delivery that can be hit to the boundary, you need to be all over it. We haven't done that very well.
Our defence has been challenged and we haven't stood up to that. It's a big learning curve but hopefully we can take a lot out of it, and next time we're back here we'll be hungrier than ever.
Steve Smith's Ashes column originally appeared on www.foxsports.com.au
Watch coverage of the fifth Ashes Test live on Sky Sports Ashes HD from Thursday. You can also watch the fifth Test with a NOW TV Sports Day Pass. Plus, our Ashes Events Centre - the best of Sky Cricket's analysis at your fingertips - is available on our iPad app.