Stokes concedes other teams are decoding Bazball

Ben Stokes says England must be prepared to go back to the drawing board as other teams begin to decode their controversial 'Bazball' tactics.

Australia delivered the final blows to England's tough Ashes series on day five at the SCG with Alex Carey hitting the winning runs for the hosts' five-wicket win and 4-1 series victory.

England captain Stokes is set to have tough conversations with his teammates in the fallout from the series, during which England were outplayed almost at every turn.

"It's just been so far below the level that this team can operate at," Stokes said of England's series.

The tourists were let down by inconsistent bowling from their understrength pace attack and dropped a staggering 18 catches across the five matches.

While England's proactive batting helped them to not lose any of their first seven series under Brendon McCullum, it was often their downfall in the Ashes series.

In the clearest example from the series finale, England looked ready to kick on to a huge first-innings total with their last out-and-out batters in centurion Joe Root and Jamie Smith.

Instead, Smith (46) attempted to take on Marnus Labuschagne's part-time medium pace and picked out a fielder to leave the tourists into the bowlers and deny himself a half-century.

"We are now playing against teams who have answers to the style of cricket that we have been playing over quite a long period of time now," Stokes conceded.

"In the first couple of years (under McCullum), teams found it difficult to try and come up with anything to combat the way that we played.

"But there's moments in games throughout the (Ashes) series and even before that where we've almost gifted the flow of the game back to the opposition."

Stokes said England now had to be prepared to rethink their approach, having lost 14 Test matches since the beginning of 2024.

"When a trend is happening on a consistent basis in the way that you don't want it to happen, that's when you do need to go back and go look at the drawing board and make some adjustments," he said.

McCullum is contracted to remain in charge through the 2027 Ashes, but has come under fire throughout this series.

Specifically, England did not play an organised tour match ahead of the series opener and embarked on a controversial team bonding trip to Noosa after going 2-0 down in Brisbane.

Stokes is ready to stand up for McCullum should ECB powerbrokers begin to weigh in.

"If something ever comes to it, I'll be asked for my opinion and he'll be getting my full support," he said.

"I absolutely love working with Baz, he's a great man and he's a very, very, very good coach."