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Few recall the last ball of the Ashes. It's the first that's famous. That errant delivery that goes to the slips, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, shattering the stumps! Concluding moments? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to conclude a batting effort defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Harris, Rankin playing in his single Test at the fag-end of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that's been full of them in 2014; a Steve Harmison bouncer deflecting off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the only four Australia score in a run chase they'll not attempt in 2005.

It's the difference between wondering how things will go, and understanding how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a happy ending. For the last decade, England's Australian tours have concluded in failure, as opposed to with them. Andy Flower was dismissed as manager after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was let go after another, in 2021-22. You can make a pair of XIs out of England players who featured in their final Test match at the tail end of an trip Down Under during the previous 25 years, and additionally have a several individuals over to serve as reserves for either side.

The current English side have not professed to be overly concerned about consequences. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the one-day side before him, frequently remarks that regardless of whether a lofted drive is caught on the boundary matters less as whether it was the proper call to attempt it in the beginning, and while fielding he's quick to praise a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Ben 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 believes will do well for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already seems like the result they are bound to face. It is Bazball's decisive moment. And there are numerous predictions of failure in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another bad defeat in the coming weeks. The captain's strategy has been based on defying expectations, and the flipside is it seems that there are many individuals who would be thrilled to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a good moment to point out that the important question isn't just where this concludes, but regardless of whether we enjoyed it along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an completely dismal national side. They had been defeated in a quartet of successive tournaments and were lagging in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won a single Test match out of seventeen, and lost 12 of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to the Indian squad at the the famous stadium, an innings and 14 runs to the Australians at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to West Indies in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by West Indies in the island in spring 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as skipper.

By the conclusion, after all those periods of testing and isolation and restricted environments and repeated losses 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 playing arena. A significant portion of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have done in the subsequent years was in reaction to all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a bout of anxiety. It was intended to remind everyone that it was supposed to be fun, if it was intended as anything.

That remains true now. Although the the prestigious contest is on the line, and even if the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they go about competing. Everyday life has a way of imposing, it can be difficult to remember the knowledge we acquire in our most difficult periods.

This is the England team that achieved back-to-back fourth-innings chases of three challenging targets in one period against the Black Caps; that scored a massive 378 to overcome India that same summer; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that battled hard to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the the series; that defeated India in the southern city off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever executed in the the region, and then overcame Pakistan in the city off the back of a further exceptional performance.

This is the national side, too, that somehow end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made a modest 326; who ended up losing one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the opening session against New Zealand, and then followed suit against Australia; who were soundly beaten by a massive 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the losing side of one of the island nation's greatest victories. Between them, they have recorded some of the most improbable victories, experienced some of the ugliest dismissals, scored some of the surprising hundreds, and secured some of the most startling five-wicket hauls in the annals of the English game.

Regardless of how this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, successively, incredible, preposterous, ridiculous, exasperating, and entirely, without regret, unapologetically enjoyable.