And Mitchell Johnson, the man who terrorised England in the previous Ashes series, loomed as a big threat for much of England's press.

Humiliating was how Stephen Brenkley of The Independent saw the match, describing the Australians' victory as "ruthless".

"What happened on Sunday was not so much a defeat as a mauling," Brenkley wrote.

"If England asked for a benign surface, intended to negate their opponents' faster bowlers – and they denied it afterwards – then it rebounded on them spectacularly.

"Mitchell Johnson again looms large in the English psyche and he was irrepressible for a little while, scenting English blood in his nostrils."

An angry Geoffrey Boycott wrote in the Telegraph that England were a "shambles".

"Getting bowled out on this pitch in 37 overs was an embarrassment. We had no fight, our thinking was awful and we never adapted to the situation ... it is shameful to bat the way we did.

"Unless we take 20 wickets, how are we going to win the Ashes? They took 20 wickets on a slow surface tailor-made to frustrate them. We took 10 wickets and conceded 820 runs. We are not going to beat Australia on flat, slow pitches."

The Telegraph's Scyld Berry wrote that England are lucky to have a long break between this Test and the next.

"It is a mercy for England that the third Test at Edgbaston is not the second of back-to-back Tests, starting in three or four days. If it was, England would have no chance of recovering from their third-largest Ashes defeat by a runs margin.

"Instead England have until Wednesday week to stitch together the scars which Mitchell Johnson reopened during an archetypal Australian performance."

Ian Herbert wrote in The Independent that England needed to improve mentally, more than technically.

"What England really need resides way beyond the technical. It is the mental faculty to contend with this Antipodean machine and the kind of feeding frenzy that things can degenerate into when they sniff so much as a hint of weakness.

"To have said England were outplayed as they collapsed all out in a few hours would be to imply that they had played. They folded, Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali's lollipop catches just the late, feeble knockings to which the venom of the moustachioed Mitchell was such a devastating foil."

David Lloyd was unimpressed with the England performance, and made his feelings known in the Daily Mail.

"I think it was Dinah Washington who sang 'What a Difference a Test Makes'. England were all over Australia like a cheap suit at Cardiff, but it was a total role reversal here at Lord's. The spectre of Mitchell Johnson is hanging over England as he spooks the top order with his extra pace – to say nothing of that run-out of Ben Stokes…

"But, honestly, that was a pitiful performance from England, lacking application, desire and fight. So there, I've got that off my chest. The question is: do we believe in momentum? If we do, England needn't turn up at Edgbaston. Any professional outfit will look at that performance and say: this will simply not do."

Nasser Hussain said the English top order should take a "good, long hard look at themselves".

"[They must] sort out the repeated failings that are the biggest single reason why this Ashes series is level after the most comprehensive of victories here at Lord's for Australia," he wrote in the Daily Mail.

"The biggest worry for me is that there is such a repetitive nature to England's dismissals and nothing gets me more angry than seeing batsmen getting out the same way time and again and not learning from their mistakes.

"England cannot keep on being 30 for three – or worse – and hope to win Tests against Australia. They may have done it at Cardiff but that was only because Joe Root was dropped second ball. He cannot keep on rescuing them."

The Telegraph's Jonathan Liew didn't miss the top order either - but he also took aim at England's selectors.

"Naturally, there will be a temptation to dismantle the top order entirely. Drop Adam Lyth. Drop Gary Ballance. Definitely drop Ian Bell. In fact, drop Joe Root as punishment for batting next to Bell in the order. Drop Ben Stokes for his calamitous run-out. Drop Jos Buttler, too. Replace all six with Kevin Pietersen, and the Ashes are surely ours," he wrote.

"The reality will be a little more prosaic. The entirely understandable demand for heads on plates falls down when any list of replacements is compiled.

"James Whitaker has been a selector since 2008 and chief selector since 2014, and to be brutally frank, it is hard to think of another England and Wales Cricket Board employee who has been so inept for so long. "

The docile Lord's pitch was mentioned more than once, with another Independent article describing it as a "pudding pitch", amid calls for more bowler friendly pitches in the last three Tests.

The third Test will be played at Edgbaston and begins on Wednesday July 29.