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Few recall the last ball of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, shattering the stumps! Final deliveries? I had to research them. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to finish an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Harris, Rankin featuring in his sole Test at the tail-end of a rapid downfall in a 5-0 whitewash that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Langer's shoulder for runs, the only four Australia score in a run chase they'll not undertake in 2005.

It's the difference between questioning how things will go, and understanding how they do. One certainty is, there's no certainty there will be a positive outcome. For the last decade, the English trips Down Under have concluded in failure, rather than with them. Andy Flower was removed as manager after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of national team members who played their last Test match at the tail end of an trip Down Under during the past 25 years, and even have a couple of men over to act as substitutes for each squad.

The current English side have never claimed to care too much about outcomes. Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that whether or not a lifted stroke is taken at the rope is secondary as whether or not it was the proper call to play it in the beginning, and while fielding he's quick to praise a pitcher who concedes runs so long as they are bringing the team toward taking that next wicket. But then the very reason Stokes tried to instruct his squad to play this way was so they would be in a superior situation to execute the style of play he feels will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been planning extensively, already seems like the result they are bound to face. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are too many predictions of failure in the national sport for the team to escape criticism if they do suffer another bad defeat in the coming weeks. His methodology has been predicated on defying expectations, and the counterpart is it feels as if there are numerous observers who would be pleased to be validated.

Given that, it's a good moment to point out that the key issue isn't just where this ultimately leads, but regardless of whether we had fun along the way. Four years ago, England were an thoroughly poor sports team. They had been defeated in a quartet of successive tournaments and were lagging in the fifth, against the Indian team, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost twelve of them by humiliating deficits. A loss by eight wickets to the Black Caps at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the Oval, an innings and 14 runs to the Australians at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to the Caribbean side in the island nation.

England were thrashed by West Indies in Grenada in March 2022 just before Root stepped down as skipper.

By the conclusion, after all those stretches of health protocols and isolation and controlled settings and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were virtually the most miserable and exhausted Test team the English cricket board had ever put on to a sports ground. A great deal of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have done in the following period was in reaction to all that, as well as the former's experiences during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was meant to be anything.

That remains true now. Although the the historic series is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they approach playing the game. Daily routines has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to remember the lessons we learn in our toughest times.

Presented is the English squad that achieved successive fourth-innings chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one season against the Kiwis; that scored a huge total to defeat the subcontinent giants that corresponding period; that became the initial visiting side to win a comprehensive victory in the subcontinent country; that fought back to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the Ashes; that beat India in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever performed in the the area, and then defeated the Pakistani team in the city off the back of another.

This is the England team, too, that managed to end up being defeated in a Test by an innings defeat even though the rivals made a modest 326; who fetched up suffering a loss in one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then followed suit against Australia; who were routed by a massive 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's greatest victories. Collectively, they have achieved some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the poorest performances, scored some of the surprising hundreds, and taken some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the annals of English cricket.

Regardless of how this Ashes series concludes, they have been, successively, amazing, unbelievable, ridiculous, frustrating, and entirely, without regret, unapologetically enjoyable.