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Few recall the concluding moment of the Ashes. That initial ball that's legendary. That errant delivery that goes to the slips, that elegant shot for four, that wicket, clean bowled! Final deliveries? I needed to check. Moeen Ali cutting a stroke behind to conclude a batting effort loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin playing in his sole Test at the fag-end of a 30-over collapse in a comprehensive defeat that's been full of them in 2014; a Steve Harmison bouncer ricocheting away Justin Langer's shoulder for runs, the sole boundary the Aussies manage in a target they'll not undertake in 2005.

It's the difference between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a positive outcome. For the last decade, England's Australian tours have finished in defeat, instead of with them. Flower was removed as manager after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of English cricketers who played their last Test match at the tail end of an Australian tour during the previous 25 years, and still have a few players over to serve as reserves for either side.

Stokes' squad have not professed to be overly concerned about consequences. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, consistently states that whether or not a lofted drive is taken at the rope is secondary as whether or not it was the right decision to attempt it in the beginning, and while fielding he's pleased to applaud a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they bringing the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to instruct his squad to adopt this approach was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the kind of cricket he feels will succeed for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been training rigorously, already appears as the conclusion they cannot escape. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are an abundance of warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to escape criticism if they do endure a further disappointing result in the next few weeks. His methodology has been founded on defying expectations, and the counterpart is it seems that there are numerous observers who would be thrilled to be proven correct.

Considering this, it's a good moment to point out that the crucial matter isn't just where this all ends up, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. Four years ago, the English team were an thoroughly poor cricket team. They had been overcome in four straight contests and were trailing in the fifth, against India, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won only one Test match out of 17, and lost a dozen of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at Edgbaston, A defeat by 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the the famous stadium, an innings and 14 runs to the Aussie team at the iconic ground, 10 wickets to the Windies in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by West Indies in Grenada in March 2022 just before Root resigned as captain.

By the conclusion, after all those months of nasal swabs and isolation and controlled settings and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were virtually the most disheartened and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever sent out to a cricket field. A significant portion of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the years since was in response to all that, as well as the former's personal encounters during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was designed to emphasize to all that it was intended as fun, if it was intended as anything.

That remains true now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they approach performing. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be challenging to hold on to the knowledge we acquire in our toughest times.

This is the national side that secured successive fourth-innings chases of three challenging targets in one summer against the Black Caps; that achieved 378 to defeat the subcontinent giants that same summer; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the host nation; that showed resilience to a draw after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that beat the Indian team in the historic venue off the back of one of the greatest innings ever executed in the the area, and then beat the Pakistani team in the location off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the English squad, too, that managed to end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an large margin even though the rivals made a relatively low total; who ended up suffering a loss in one of the finer contests ever contested after making a bold declaration in the first innings against the Black Caps, and then did the same thing against the Australian team; who were routed by a massive 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the losing side of one of the island nation's finest wins. Between them, they have secured some of the unlikeliest wins, endured some of the most embarrassing exits, made some of the unlikeliest tons, and taken some of the most surprising five-wicket hauls in the annals of the national sport.

However this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, one after another, astonishing, unbelievable, absurd, exasperating, and totally, without regret, boldly entertaining.