Kevin Pietersen believes England will benefit from the experience of playing Australia.

The Hampshire batsman failed to add to his overnight 29 before he was dismissed by the third ball of the final day of the fifth Test in Sydney.

But he still finished the series as England's best batsman, with 490 runs at 54.44, and believes that he and his teammates can learn from the experience of playing against one of the best Test sides of all time.

Pietersen said: ''Australia have been absolutely awesome. This England team has played really, really good cricket but this Australian team was obviously backed into a corner in the Ashes 2005 and have come back doubly strong.

''I've heard a lot of people who've watched a lot more cricket and been around a lot longer than I have saying this is the greatest Australian team they've ever seen.

''To be playing against them and challenging ourselves against them is not going to do us any harm.

"For guys coming into their first series against Australia, to see how the likes of Shane Warne, (Matthew) Hayden, (Ricky) Ponting how they go at you on the field and how mentally they try and get hold of your brain and try and wreck it over the course of six or seven weeks.

''This will definitely stand the boys in good stead.''

Australia coach John Buchanan accused Pietersen of not being a team man after the penultimate Test in Melbourne, but the 25-year-old insisted that finishing as England's leading run scorer was scant consolation for the whitewash.

''I'd rather have scored 150 runs (in total) and for us to win the Ashes," he added.

Pietersen, who scored one of England's three hundreds, believes the 5-0 defeat was down to the inability to score centuries and lack of discipline with the ball.

''You have to score hundreds in Test match cricket. I think we only got three hundreds this trip. Hundreds gets you involved and get you competitive.

"For the bowlers the key is to know there's a corridor we need to bowl in.''

Shane Warne, who will only be playing first-class cricket for Hampshire from now on, bowled three wicketless overs as England lost their last five wickets for just 33 runs.

After finishing his Test career with 706 wickets at 25.35 and the first Ashes whitewash in 85 years, the Hampshire captain said: "To win 5-0 is a fantastic achievement by this group of guys. This team's played some sensational cricket through the whole summer.

"England have played some good cricket at times too, but when the big moments came the Australian team stood up."