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Few recall the final delivery of the Ashes. It's the first that's legendary. That wide that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, bowled him! Last balls? I needed to check. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to conclude a batting effort rout in a inconsequential game in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Harris, Rankin participating 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 ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four Australia manage in a pursuit they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and seeing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no certainty there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, England's trips Down Under have finished in defeat, rather than with them. Flower was dismissed as coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a pair of XIs out of national team members who participated in their concluding Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and even have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for both teams.

Stokes' squad have not asserted to care too much about consequences. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that if a aerial shot is caught on the boundary matters less as if it was the right decision to play it in the beginning, and during play he's pleased to applaud a pitcher who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the key rationale Ben Stokes tried to instruct his squad to follow this style was so they would be in a more advantageous state to deliver the brand of the game he believes will succeed for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been training rigorously, already appears as the outcome they are bound to face. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are numerous predictions of failure in the national sport for the team to avoid backlash if they do suffer another bad defeat in the coming weeks. Stokes's approach has been predicated on proving everyone wrong, and the other side is it appears there are many individuals who would be pleased to be shown right.

In light of this, it's a good moment to emphasize that the important question isn't just where this all ends up, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. A few years back, England were an thoroughly poor national side. They had been defeated in four straight contests and were falling behind in the final one, against India, when it was postponed because of the pandemic. They had won a single Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to the Kiwis at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the Oval, an innings and 14 runs to the Australians at the iconic ground, A defeat by ten wickets to West Indies in Grenada.

The team was soundly beaten by West Indies in Grenada in March 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as leader.

By the conclusion, after all those periods of health protocols and isolation and controlled settings and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most disheartened and careworn Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a cricket field. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the following period was in response to all that, as well as the former's experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a period of mental health challenges. It was intended to remind everyone that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was supposed to be anything at all.

This continues to be the case now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they tackle competing. Normal existence has a way of crowding in, it can be challenging to retain the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the national side that peeled off consecutive run chases of three challenging targets in one summer against the Kiwis; that made a massive 378 to defeat the Indian team that identical season; that became the pioneering away squad to win a comprehensive victory in the host nation; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going two games behind in the the series; that beat India in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the region, and then beat Pakistan in the location off the back of another.

This is the England team, too, that managed to end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made a relatively low total; who ended up being defeated in one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the opening session against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against the Australian team; who were routed by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the losing side of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. Collectively, they have achieved some of the surprising successes, suffered some of the most embarrassing exits, made some of the surprising hundreds, and taken some of the most startling exceptional bowling spells in the annals of the national sport.

Regardless of how this historic contest unfolds, they have been, one after another, incredible, unbelievable, absurd, frustrating, and entirely, unrepentantly, unapologetically enjoyable.