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People rarely mention the final delivery of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's renowned. That stray ball that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, clean bowled! Concluding moments? I had to research them. Moeen Ali cutting a stroke behind to finish an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his single Test at the tail-end of a rapid downfall in a 5-0 whitewash that's been plentiful in 2014; a Steve Harmison rising delivery glancing off Langer's shoulder for runs, the single four the Australian team score in a run chase they'll not attempt in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and understanding how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no certainty there will be a successful conclusion. For the last decade, England's trips Down Under have concluded in failure, instead of with them. Flower lost his job as manager after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Silverwood was let go after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and still have a few players over to act as substitutes for either side.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to worry excessively about results. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, frequently remarks that if a lifted stroke is taken at the rope matters less as whether or not it was the right decision to attempt it in the first place, and while fielding he's pleased to applaud a delivery man who concedes runs so long as they help bring the team closer to taking that next wicket. 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 execute the style of play he believes will do well for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been planning extensively, already appears as the outcome they can't get away from. It is this aggressive approach's critical moment. And there are numerous “I told you so’s” in the English game for the team to get away with it if they do endure a further bad defeat in the next few weeks. Stokes's approach has been founded on proving everyone wrong, and the flipside is it appears there are numerous observers who would be delighted to be shown right.

Given that, it's a appropriate time to emphasize that the crucial matter is not only where this ultimately leads, but regardless of whether we found pleasure along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an completely dismal national side. They had been defeated in four consecutive series and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was postponed because of the pandemic. They had won only one Test match out of seventeen, and lost a dozen of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to the Black Caps at Edgbaston, A 157-run loss to the subcontinent team at the Oval, an a comprehensive loss to the Australians at the iconic ground, A defeat by ten wickets to West Indies in the island nation.

The team was soundly beaten by West Indies in the island in March 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as captain.

By the final stage, after all those periods of nasal swabs and social distancing and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were practically the most miserable and careworn Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a sports ground. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the following period was in reaction to all that, as well as the Stokes' personal encounters during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was intended as entertaining, if it was intended as anything at all.

That remains true now. Despite when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they approach competing. Normal existence has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to hold on to the knowledge we acquire in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the England team that secured back-to-back run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against New Zealand; that achieved 378 to beat the Indian team that same summer; that became the pioneering away squad to win a comprehensive victory in the subcontinent country; that battled hard to a stalemate after going two games behind in the the series; that defeated the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the area, and then overcame the Pakistani team in the location off the back of a further exceptional performance.

This is the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the other team made only 326; who concluded suffering a loss in one of the more exciting matches ever staged after making a cocksure declaration in the first innings against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were soundly beaten by 434 runs in the venue, and who were on the losing side of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. As a unit, they have recorded some of the unlikeliest wins, suffered some of the ugliest dismissals, achieved some of the most improbable centuries, and taken some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the annals of English cricket.

However this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, successively, amazing, unbelievable, ridiculous, infuriating, and completely, without regret, unapologetically thrilling.