"In this day and age the scheduling is such that you can't play cricket unless you see your family. You're going to be less happy as a person and they all say it. All the players say it. You're going to be less happy if you don't see your family," Marsh said. "All the families were there [when Australia thrashed England] at Lord's, as [Cricket Australia executive] Pat Howard quite rightly said. "I just think it's codswallop. Individuals can do what they want to do and Darren [Lehmann, coach] endorses that. And as far as I'm concerned it's fine." What Marsh is not satisfied with - the other extreme, in fact - is the way Australia have batted in the Ashes, describing their first-innings performances in particular as deplorable. But he is adamant he would have picked the same crop of batsmen if he had his time over. Marsh's declaration he was "staggered" by how badly the batsmen, especially those in the middle order, performed in the now-lost Ashes series came as he confirmed the looming opportunity for Joe Burns in the limited-overs series could be considered when it came to picking Australia's next Test squad, for Bangladesh in October.

"You're always looking that way. We're looking for good cricketers and it's always been the case in Australian cricket," said Marsh, citing Greg Blewett (now Australia's fielding coach) as a player whose Test elevation came primarily as a result of his batting in one-day cricket for Australia. "There's opportunities . . . if you play for Australia and you make the most of them, it can't do you any harm," he said. Burns, a 25-year-old Queenslander, made his Test debut last summer when Mitch Marsh was injured. While he batted in the middle order at the MCG and SCG against Sydney his now-customary position is as opener, where there will be a vacancy after the Ashes unless Chris Rogers and selectors both agree to postpone his retirement. Marsh said the Australian touring hierarchy had already begun analysing the reason for their series defeat by England. He said he was willing to accept criticism for the team's performance, but wanted critics to know he was content at having "spent hours and hours and hours watching Sheffield Shield cricket . . . no selection panel can work harder than we worked, and we will continue to work". "There's not much you can do about it really. We were walloped and it hurts like hell – it hurts me like hell," he said in Northampton, as Australia prepared for their three-day practice match starting on Friday.

The chief selector lamented their middle order - Michael Clarke, Adam Voges and, depending on the Test, one of Shane Watson, Mitch Marsh and Shaun Marsh - had contributed so little compared to England's. "If you have a look at our first-innings batting it's been deplorable. It's all you can say. Guys have let themselves down," he said. "We [selectors] have got to take some blame . . . but how the hell do you see that? How do you see some of the best batsmen in the world make no runs in the first innings of four Test matches, basically? It just staggered me. "Our blokes scored more runs than their top order, but our middle-order scored no runs and that was the big differential – we just didn't score any runs in the middle." Even with the paltry contributions of most of the batsmen across the four Tests the former wicketkeeper is not doubting himself for having chosen them.

"If I had my time again, to sit down and choose the batsmen to come to England it would have been exactly the same. I just couldn't think of anyone else who could have done the job," he said. "We picked blokes with experience in these conditions, we picked blokes that we thought would get runs obviously. "You've got to be held accountable. Fine, I agree with that. But I'm just racking my brain to try and think of who else we could have picked." Marsh said he wanted Australia's batsmen to demand they spent more time at the crease, arguing it was possible to be "quite selfish as a batsman and still be a hell of a good team person". "Being selfish as a batsman seems to me to be not wanting to get out and wanting to occupy the crease longer than anyone else in your team - and those things count in Test match cricket. I think our blokes have got to be more selfish. They've got to say 'Righto, no-one's getting me out and I don't care if it takes me all day to make a hundred'. You're allowed to bat all day . . . I think our longest partnership in that [Trent Bridge] game was something like 18 overs. That's appalling in a Test match, I don't care what you're playing on," he said.