Steve Smith should create own legacy - Steve Waugh

Steve Smith should create his own point of difference to Michael Clarke early on in his captaincy, according to Steve Waugh.

Smith's start to life as permanent captain of Australia's Test and one-day international teams has been a winning one, with the tourists claiming their ODI series 3-2 over England on Sunday.

However, the 26-year-old came under fire for his successful appeal for Ben Stokes' wicket for obstructing the field in the second ODI at Lord's on September 5.

Waugh said Smith - slammed by New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum as being immature after the Stokes saga - deserved a year-long honeymoon period to work out his style following the retirement of Clarke.

"It is going to be different and you want it to be so," Waugh said, referring to Smith's captaincy as opposed to Clarke's.

"It will be terrible if they were same.

"You want to bring something new to the table and something to reinvigorate the team.

"He will also have a lot of new players coming in, so he has to captain his side and the younger players will follow him.

"You have to give him 12 months to see what his style is.

"I think he will be pretty aggressive but when you've got a new, inexperienced team, it is not that easy to be as aggressive as an experienced side.

"He has to find his feet and get to know all the players, so I think we can assess better in 12 months' time."

Waugh captained Australia across the ODI and Test formats from 1997 to 2004.