England seamer James Anderson has said that improvement is needed ahead of this winter's Ashes series Down Under despite winning on home soil this summer.

The 31-year-old from Burnley said that he and his teammates did not quite play to their potential over the summer Tests but promised that they are determined to deny Australia getting their hands on the urn for the first time since 2007.

"Obviously, every tour we go on as an England player is great but The Ashes is something really special and something that we - certainly I - grew up wanting to play in," he told Sky Sports News.

"I think during the summer we certainly didn't play to our best. Certainly the guys at the top of the order will put their hands up and say they didn't get the runs that they would expect of themselves.

"The bowlers were possibly a little bit inconsistent and going to Australia we know we're going to have to be consistent and play somewhere near our best. The exciting thing for us is that we know we can improve; hopefully we can do that this winter."

Anderson was part of the team that won 3-1 in Australia in 2011.