England Reflect Pastel Shades of Lord's Before Tooth and Claw Australia

On a day of ephemeral passing cloud and ephemeral passing English batsmen Lord's had one of its emerald-green days, the sun winking in and out, drawing its shadow down across the grass like a watercolour wash. At times like these the outfield seems to glow and fade with the light, the pitch almost the same colour as the washed-out colonnades of the pavilion as England quivered and prodded their way to an invertebrate 405-run defeat.

Not that the home support seemed to mind that much on a quietly resplendent Sunday afternoon at a ground that has seen these collective white flags come and go down the decades. England were all out for 53 and 62 here in 1888 when Charlie "The Terror" Turner took 10 for 63 in 49 overs. They were all out for 77 in 1997, the first of many epic collapses at the irresistible hand of Glenn McGrath. (Mitchell Johnson reopens England Ashes scars as Aussie media gloat)

Here there was the odd boo from the stands as Australia's bowlers rattled through the final knockings with a degree of aggression, accuracy and control that was several leagues up from anything England had been able to produce on the same pitch. Otherwise there was simply a woozy, well-watered hush around a ground that has a reputation for fustiness but in high summer is also a place of display, a cathedral of pastel, of daringly bared ankle.

Even the playing surface has an air of middle-aged dash at times, the gingham outfield clashing with neat little stripes across the square and the brogue-like detailing at the wicket ends. Looking down from above even that peculiar uniform worn by Lord's Man - washed-out pastel shorts, fine leather shoes, striped shirt - starts to make a little sense. So, that's what they're trying to look like. They're trying to look like Lord's itself.

What did England look like here? Second best, for a start, and by a huge distance against an excellent Australia team who adjusted their bowling lengths, jutted their jaws out at the top of the order and looked to have greater strength and depth in every area.

Three key moments seemed to capture the trajectory of England's collapse on the fourth day as Australia dug their nails into every major weak spot. Of the three it is the most obvious, the mismatch between opening batsmen and opening bowlers - where so many Ashes Tests are decided - that will perhaps concern England most from here.

In the morning session Steve Smith swished his way to 58 lovely, easy, pre-lunch runs before being bowled with a skip down the pitch to Moeen Ali so carefree it was almost a killer sledge in itself. First lesson: the predictions were correct. There is one technically rickety No3 batsman in this series doomed to struggle in English conditions. But he doesn't play for Australia. Smith is, it turns out, the world's top-ranked batsman for a reason.

Moment No2 arrived at shortly after tea as Ben Stokes produced a piece of cricket the word "village" struggles to do justice to. This was closer to hamlet cricket, cave-settlement cricket, wattle-and-daub-fence cricket. All set to make his ground easily on a quick single Stokes leapt up in the air, raised his unslid bat and invited Mitchell Johnson, cordially, to run him out.

Johnson duly obliged, a lesson in the relative competitive focus of these two teams by that stage. But more than that a fair reflection of the decisive contribution of Australia's opening bowlers to this Test and the high-grade destruction they might yet wreak in the next three.

It is here, at the top of the order with bat and ball, where Australia struck a decisive blow on every day of this Test. Chris Rogers and David Warner made 343 runs for three times out. Mitchell Starc, Johnson and Josh Hazlewood were relentless and full of craft with the new ball. When one of your opening Mitches is chucking down the stumps and taking six for 80 in the match, the other horsing around at point putting his mate in a headlock on what was supposed to be an afternoon of doughty rearguard action it's pretty clear which team hold the stronger hand.

England have a clear problem at the top of the order, a weakness that tenderises everything below it. After his waft in the first innings Adam Lyth did nothing obviously wrong here apart from attract a lovely delivery from Starc that reared up and took a fine edge behind.

It is true that when the rest of his recent dismissals are replayed a pattern emerges: good balls that Lyth might have somehow avoided were he more experienced, luckier, more conditioned to expect bowlers at this level will get that kind of bounce and nip from that kind of length. But still there is no obvious ready-made replacement out there. Lyth is the right selection for England because, basically, and for all his sense of being slightly short so far, he is the best around right now.

There are two ways of looking at this. First the sensible course: back your man's talent and work at helping him make the step up to what is a furiously high class new ball attack. Or make a big call, accepting that once you begin to fail at the top of the order to wrest control back is doubly hard.

Realistically there are no junior Trescothicks lurking out there. Daryl Mitchell, Mark Stoneman and Alex Lees are the form openers. Alex Hales could bat down the order perhaps. Daniel Bell-Drummond is two years off. The only real option for change is at three, with Jonny Bairstow stepping in at five and everyone else dropping a place. Gary Ballance would be the obvious man to make way, helped along by a horrible innings here that featured one half-cock defensive shot to a thunderbolt from Starc so horrendous it pretty much merited being waved in to the pavilion then and there and marked in the scorecard as, "out, dropped.

Otherwise, as Lord's emptied out in the afternoon sunshine, another Test year done, it was hard to avoid the obvious conclusion. On a flat pitch the best England can muster were nowhere near good enough against a fully grooved post-Cardiff pace attack that would no doubt make even Australia's own high-grade top order sweat. For this on-the-hoof England it could turn out to be a long old summer from here.