Chairman of selectors Rod Marsh has defended the Australia squad sent to England for this summer's Ashes series.

Despite recording an impressive victory in the second Test at Lord's, Australia's batting collapses throughout the series handed the advantage to England and the hosts regained the urn with a match to spare by winning at Trent Bridge.

Australia have since been criticised for choosing older players ahead of promising youngsters, but Marsh believes that the performances could not have been predicted by the selection panel.

"If I had my time again, to sit down and choose the batsmen to come to England it would have been exactly the same," he told Cricket Australia's website. "I just couldn't think of anyone else who could have done the job. We picked blokes with experience in these conditions, we picked blokes that we thought would get runs.

"If you have a look at our first innings batting it's been deplorable, it's all you can say.

"How the hell do you [foresee] 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."

The fifth Test begins at The Oval next Thursday.