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Few recall the final delivery of the Ashes. It's the first that's famous. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, clean bowled! Final deliveries? I had to look them up. Ali edging a shot behind to finish an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his sole Test at the fag-end of a quick disintegration in a clean sweep that's been commonplace in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the single four the Aussies score in a run chase they'll not undertake in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and seeing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a successful conclusion. For the past ten years, the English Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Andy Flower was removed as head coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was let go after another, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of English cricketers who featured in their final Test match at the conclusion of an trip Down Under during the previous 25 years, and even have a several individuals over to act as substitutes for both teams.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to care too much about results. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, consistently states that if a lifted stroke is grabbed near the fence isn't as important as whether it was the proper call to attempt it in the outset, and while fielding he's happy to clap a pitcher who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team toward taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the primary motive Stokes tried to teach his team to play this way was so they would be in a better position to execute the brand of the game he thinks will perform effectively for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already appears as the result they are bound to face. It is Bazball's decisive moment. And there are an abundance of predictions of failure in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another disappointing result in the next few weeks. Stokes's approach has been founded on defying expectations, and the flipside is it feels as if there are plenty of people who would be delighted to be validated.

In light of this, it's a good moment to emphasize that the key issue goes beyond where this all ends up, but regardless of whether we enjoyed it along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an utterly abject national side. They had been defeated in a quartet of successive tournaments 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 12 of them by humiliating deficits. A loss by eight wickets to the Black Caps at Edgbaston, 157 runs to the Indian squad at the the famous stadium, an innings and 14 runs to Australia at Melbourne, 10 wickets to West Indies in the island nation.

The team was soundly beaten by the Caribbean team in the venue in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root stepped aside as skipper.

By the conclusion, after all those periods of testing and social distancing and biosecure bubbles and repeated losses at the hands of everyone they played, they were just about the most miserable and weary Test team England had ever put on 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 former's experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was intended as something.

It still is now. Despite when the Ashes is on the line, and although the team have finally recognized that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they approach playing the game. Normal existence has a way of crowding in, it can be challenging to retain the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

This is the English squad that achieved back-to-back fourth-innings chases of three challenging targets in one summer against New Zealand; that made a massive 378 to defeat the subcontinent giants that identical season; that became the first touring team to win a comprehensive victory in the host nation; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that defeated the Indian team in Hyderabad off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever performed in the the area, and then overcame Pakistan in the city off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the national side, too, that managed to end up losing a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made only 326; who concluded losing one of the more exciting matches ever staged after making a bold declaration in the first innings against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against the Aussies; 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. Collectively, they have recorded some of the surprising successes, endured some of the ugliest dismissals, made some of the surprising centuries, and achieved some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the records of English cricket.

However this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, in turn, astonishing, outrageous, unconventional, infuriating, and completely, unapologetically, unashamedly enjoyable.