Warne could be beneficial

Legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne will be captaining Hampshire for two more seasons

Duncan Fletcher has not ruled out the possibility of asking retired Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne to help England recover from their Ashes defeat.

The world record Test wicket-taker bowed out at the top by playing an instrumental part in the 5-0 whitewash to regain the famous urn Down Under.

Warne has two years remaining on his contract to captain Hampshire in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship, NatWest Pro40 league, ECB Trophy and Twenty20 campaigns.

Fletcher said if he could use the 37-year-old, who ended his Australia career with 708 Test wickets and 1,001 total international victims, he would.

“I'd be happy with him to speak to anyone, there's no doubt about it,” said the England coach. “Someone of that calibre would be very useful for England to use his experience, at any stage during the summer or at any stage of a player's career.

"Imagine the help he could give to a very, very experienced spinner in the side. He's got the capabilities of helping anyone in international cricket on how to play the game."

However, Fletcher insists there is no need for wholesale alterations to the Test side despite the first 5-0 Ashes whitewash since 1920-21.

“I don’t think it needs a major overhaul,” claimed Fletcher.

“I think leaving here having lost 5-0 we’re in a better position that we were the last time we were here when we lost 4-1.

Duncan Fletcher feels that he was justified in his selection of the team © Getty Images

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“To some degree it has been a rebuilding exercise where these youngsters are trying to get the experience required to beat a side of this calibre, but I don’t think they have shown they are not good enough at this stage.

“All the players have tried their hardest, there’s no doubt about that. If I felt as though they hadn’t then I would have felt let down.

“It’s not easy touring Australia and even if we had come out with Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, a fully-fit Simon Jones and Ashley Giles it would have been a very, very difficult task to beat Australia in Australia.”

England’s next opportunity to face Australia will come on home soil in 2009, when they will considerably weakened following the retirements of Warne and Glenn McGrath, while other key players like Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden may have followed suit by then.

Whatever opposition they face in 2009, however, Fletcher is confident the developing players in England’s current line-up like Alastair Cook can only benefit from the experience they have gained over the last six weeks.

“They are a young group of players and they will learn from this,” said Fletcher, who confirmed he will not consider his own future until after this winter’s World Cup.

“We took time to build a young side last time to go through and win the Ashes and you just don’t build a side like that overnight - it takes time.

“They’ve got a belief they know they can do the job. They’ve put in performances and they know they can compete with a top side and I’m sure that has given them some self-belief that they can go away and if they repeat those performances on a consistent basis they can beat Australia in 2009.”