England's Stokes praises Australia's Head, supports his own errant batters

PERTH :England captain Ben Stokes declared himself shell-shocked by Travis Head's incredible innings of 123 as Australia, seemingly on the ropes, roared back to crush England by eight wickets inside two days of the opening Ashes test on Saturday.

But, predictably, he declined to criticise his own side's batting approach after a second consecutive collapse triggered by a series of loose, early shots by the team's elite operators.

England were in a strong-looking position with a lead of 105 with one wicket down just after lunch, but lost nine wickets for 99 and needed late runs from bowlers Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse to even make that, setting Australia a target of 205.

Stand-in opener Head then hit the second-fastest century in Ashes history en route to 123 and Marnus Labuschagne was unbeaten on 51 as Australia raced to their target in 28.2 overs.

"Little bit shell-shocked there," Stokes said. "That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. It's quite raw, quite fresh at the moment. But sheesh, that was some knock."

Although Head's performance was incredible, England's post-lunch batting collapse - for the second day running - will be the focus of much of the post-mortem.

ENGLAND'S PREPARATION QUESTIONED

Many observers had questioned England's preparation - just one internal match against the England Lions on a pitch much slower than in Perth - and their top order looked predictably awkward in dealing with pacey, good length balls on Saturday.

Ollie Pope, Joe Root and Harry Brook all fell to expansive drives, the latter two having barely put bat on ball, just as half the team had done on Friday.

Australia's bowling was accurate and disciplined but the ball was not moving wildly and England's total lack of even a hint of