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Following on from a raucous and victorious Ashes campaign, England contrived to devise a 10-point plan in how not to prepare for a World Cup.

Injuries, soft dismissals, copious amounts of wides... it was not the best series for Andrew Strauss's side all in all.

England imploded in the most galling fashion as the tourists capitulated to a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of their Old Enemy in a one-day series which appeared to have been designed in order to sabotage their preparations for the tournament in India from February 12.

Here are the 10 easy steps England seemed to take in demonstrating how not to prepare for a World Cup.

1. Make a back-up spinner carry the drinks

And no, this is not in reference to specialist drinks carrier Luke Wright, who made just two appearances in the series. It is, in fact, alluding to the solitary game played by James Tredwell, the spinner whose place in the World Cup squad was at odds with the fact that he was given scant opportunity to make his mark, even in the absence of the injured Graeme Swann. What if England's frontline off-spinner fails to find fitness for the tournament? Well, at least you can say that Tredwell is fresh.

2. Open the batting with a recalled wicketkeeper

Matt Prior was downing KFC buckets at the fried chicken-sponsored 'Big Bash' Twenty20 tournament when he was suddenly recalled in place of Steve Davies, who made the crucial mistake of not scoring a century at his first time of asking. With Prior having been away, he was immediately plunged in at the top of the order against Brett Lee and Shaun Tait and a gleaming new white ball. England then compounded the confusion by changing their minds again, with Davis being given just one game to prove himself alongside Strauss at the top of order.

3. Keep KP in the side without a wake-up call

One of the grimmer sights in the series was the persistent and all too predictable soft dismissals of Kevin Pietersen, who batted like a man who desperately wanted to jump on the nearest Qantas flight home. England's outrageously talented number four was at odds with himself during the series as his forced professionalism clashed with a palpable desperation to not be present at the grounds. It was a futile exercise.

4. Pick Paul Collingwood as a specialist bowler

Cowers is a staunch advocate of sticking with the players selected to give every man a good run in the side after watching England's one-cap wonder policy under Raymond Illingworth's tenure throughout the 90s. But the tourists took the principle too far as they desperately found evermore tenuous reasons for picking the colossally out-of-nick Collingwood. The result was that he ended up playing in four matches, before injury curtailed his series, averaging 17.66 with the bat, with a highest score of 27.

5. Omit your most dangerous bowler from the squad

The one thing more frustrating for England supporters dismayed at Chris Tremlett's omission from the World Cup squad altogether, was thinking back to when the gigantic paceman ravage Australia's top order in the Ashes, frightening their tail and ending up with stats which undoubtedly warranted his selection. It's fair to say that every opposition batsman in the tournament will have noted Tremlett's absence from the England squad with a hefty sigh of relief.

6. Tell your top-order batsmen to throw caution to the wind

Strauss, Davies and Prior each had their chance to provide the tourists with a solid platform at the top of the order, and each played as though 20 runs were required from every over. That the England captain ended the series with an average of 25.57, Prior 23 and Davies 21, showed that the strategy of 'going big at the top' backfired gloriously for Andy Flower's side. It was perhaps apt that the final match saw both openers Strauss and Davies record dismal ducks.

7. Rely on Yardy as the replacement 'finisher'

He may be a slightly uglier left-handed version of Collingwood as a batsman, but Mike Yardy is a very competent lower-order batsman. He is absolutely not, however, the clinical, innovative and inspirational 'finisher' of an innings which England would require in the absence of Eoin Morgan, should the Irishman not recover from his injury. Yardy's spirited shovelling may be effective at eeking out lower-order runs, but he is no Neil Fairbrother when it comes to steering his side through a run-chase.

8. Make your back-up seamer do an 80-hour round trip

The absurdity of asking back-up paceman to the World Cup squad Liam Plunkett to embark on a 40-hour journey from St Kitts to Perth via Miami and Hong Kong would be acceptable if it were in England's hour of need before a crucial Ashes Test. But for the final, meaningless, ODI in a dead series, the Durham seamer's presence was entirely ridiculous, and the fact that he will need to retrace his steps on Tuesday makes the decision seem all the more incredible.

9. Obsess over scheduling at the expense of focus

Flower et al have seemingly spent the entirety of the series bitterly resenting the ICC's set-in-stone scheduling, while Australia simply embraced the challenge and capitalised on their visitors' despondency. The body language of the England players was shoddy at best on the whole, and if the leadership harbours such frustration at the itinerary, disgruntled emotions have a way of flowing through the ranks.

10. Spend a month writing post-Ashes books and signing PR deals

While no one can ever fault a cricketer for attempting to capitalise on an opportunity to 'strike while the iron is hot', the fact that so many of the England camp have spent the time since the Ashes penning new books, diaries, serialisations and autobiographies cannot have helped nurture a collective focus. While Trott's widely rumoured 'marking my guard' autobiography clearly had a positive effect on his batting, Strauss's 'captain's diaries' clearly drained the skipper emotionally, with his batting in this series well below par.

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