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Nobody talks about 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! Concluding moments? I needed to check. Ali edging a shot behind to end an innings loss in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Harris, Rankin playing in his sole Test at the fag-end of a quick disintegration in a comprehensive defeat that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison short ball deflecting off Langer's shoulder for runs, the single four Australia achieve in a run chase they'll never get to make in 2005.

It separates between wondering how things will go, and seeing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a positive outcome. For the last decade, England's trips Down Under have ended in ashes, as opposed to with them. Flower was removed as head coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after a further defeat, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an trip Down Under during the last quarter-century, and even have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for each squad.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to be overly concerned about results. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, consistently states that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is taken at the rope isn't as important as whether or not it was the right decision to play it in the outset, and in the field he's pleased to applaud a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they are bringing the team nearer to taking that following breakthrough. But then the very reason Stokes tried to teach his team to follow this style was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the brand of the game he thinks will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been training rigorously, already seems like the result they can't get away from. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are an abundance of warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another poor loss in the upcoming period. Stokes's approach has been based on proving everyone wrong, and the flipside is it seems that there are plenty of people who would be thrilled to be validated.

Given that, it's a good moment to emphasize that the important question is not only where this concludes, but regardless of whether we enjoyed it along the way. Four years ago, England were an completely dismal cricket team. They had been beaten in four straight contests and were trailing in the final one, against India, when it was suspended because of Covid. They had won exactly one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by embarrassing margins. A loss by eight wickets to the Black Caps at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to the Aussie team at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to the Windies in the scenic location.

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

By the end, after all those periods of health protocols and social distancing and restricted environments and repeated losses at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most miserable and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever put on to a playing arena. A great deal of what Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have achieved in the following period was in response to all that, as well as the Stokes' personal encounters during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a series of panic attacks. It was created to emphasize to all that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was meant to be something.

This continues to be the case now. Although the the historic series is on the line, and although the team have finally recognized that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they tackle playing the game. Normal existence has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to hold on to the knowledge we acquire in our toughest times.

This is the English squad that secured successive final innings pursuits of three challenging targets in one summer against the Black Caps; that achieved a massive 378 to defeat the Indian team that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that battled hard to a stalemate after going two games behind in the the contest; that defeated India in Hyderabad off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever executed in the the region, and then overcame Pakistan in the city off the back of a further exceptional performance.

Here we have the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up losing a Test by an large margin even though the rivals made only 326; who concluded losing one of the finer contests ever staged after making a cocksure declaration in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then did the same thing against Australia; who were routed by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the wrong end of one of the island nation's greatest victories. Between them, they have secured some of the surprising successes, suffered some of the ugliest dismissals, made some of the surprising tons, and secured some of the most remarkable exceptional bowling spells in the history of the English game.

Regardless of how this historic contest shakes out, they have been, one after another, astonishing, preposterous, absurd, infuriating, and entirely, unapologetically, unapologetically entertaining.