'They had a shocker': Ben Stokes' captaincy under fire after Steve Smith 'outplayed him by a mile'

England captain Ben Stokes has come under fire after having an "shocker" in Perth, with his tactical nous called into question by an Australian great.

After sitting well ahead of the contest after day one, the visitors completely capitulated on the second day with both bat and ball, gifting Australia an early lead in the series.

England were rolled for 164 inside 35 overs in their second innings, setting the hosts a target of 205 runs to win the game at Perth Stadium.

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The rest, as they say, is history, with Travis Head producing a knock for the ages with a blistering 123 off 83 deliveries to guide the Aussies to victory.

The post-mortem has been incredibly ugly for England, who will now head to the Gabba for a pink-ball Test, which is something they have struggled with over the years.

While a lot of the heat was placed on England's brainless batting, the captaincy from Stokes has also been slammed compared to the performance of Steve Smith.

"I thought Steve Smith was good and I thought tactically, he was really good and he learned from the first innings to the second," Brad Haddin said on the Willow Talk podcast.

"You can go into these games with all the planning that you want, but once you see the wicket and the way the opposition is going to play, that can reinforce what you spoke about or sometimes, you have to make little changes on the run.

"Ben Stokes had a good first innings, the way he used his bowlers and he is very proactive in the way he moves the field. They used the short ball, they bowled quick all four bowlers. But in the second innings, he didn't have a Plan B.

"So, once Travis Head counter-attacked that short bowling, it was like 'what do we do?'

"Travis Head was a really good example, they wanted to bowl short to him when he came in at No.5 and set a leg-side field and when he opened they did exactly the same ... but all the wickets had just fallen by the ball being full and caught behind.

"Tactically, they had a shocker. They had one plan and it didn't look like they were clever enough to move with the game and what was happening in front of them.

"Steve Smith tactically outplayed Ben Stokes by a mile." 

The champion all-rounder has led the Bazball era alongside coach Brendon McCullum over the past few years and while it has brought plenty of excitement, the results have been rather inconsistent for England in the Test arena.

While it's not the Bazball way to play the patient game, Alyssa Healy called on Stokes to think deeper about his bowling plans and field placements.

"He sticks with a plan for a little bit, if it's not working they try again," she said.

"That's the way they play and that's the way they are trying to play, that's their mentality with the bat as well and that's the way he captains.

"He doesn't actually give a plan time to develop - if it doesn't work in one or two overs, change it. He's trying to almost stay ahead of the game, but at what cost?

"If they are going to go short at Travis Head when he's opening the batting and it's not working, you can't really go back from there and pitch the ball up and see if it moves after you've tossed it into the turf for six or eight overs.

"He's very proactive, but sometimes I feel like you don't need to be as much early on."