Trinidad, Mar. 12 : Former England all rounder Ian Botham has said that he is burning with frustration and anger over a lost series, which they should have won.

"Don''t give me any nonsense about a heroic and brave effort on the final day - it should never have got to that. And almost snatching a dramatic victory cannot hide the overall picture of losing to a team we should have spanked out of sight," Botham writes in an article for The Mirror.

He further goes on to say that England was scared of their own shadow for much of the series.

"If we show this attitude when the Australians arrive, then they might as well just pick up the Ashes, turn straight around and go home. We won''t beat anyone of note with this mindset and that is the biggest lesson we must take from this series - get positive or give up," said Botham.

"We were ranked second in the world not too long ago by playing in-your-face aggressive, positive cricket - what has happened since then? He asked

"The last time I checked we had slipped to sixth, which is just unacceptable, yet all I hear is about how many positives we can take from this defeat. For a team that takes so many positives from results, it seems strange we have slumped so far backwards in the past few years," Botham said.

"There has to be a rethink of our approach because right now we are struggling and there is no hiding from that. This is our third series defeat in a row and the last time that happened, we were the worst team in the world," Botham concluded. (ANI)