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People rarely mention the last ball of the Ashes. It's the first that's renowned. That errant delivery that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, bowled him! Final deliveries? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to conclude a batting effort loss in a inconsequential game in 2015; Boyd Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Harris, Rankin participating in his sole Test at the tail-end of a rapid downfall in a clean sweep that's been plentiful in 2014; a Steve Harmison short ball deflecting off Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the only four Australia manage in a target they'll not undertake in 2005.

It's the difference between wondering 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 last decade, the English visits to Australia have concluded in failure, rather than with them. Andy Flower lost his job as coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after a further defeat, in 2021-22. You can make a two lineups out of England players who featured in their final Test match at the tail end of an trip Down Under during the last quarter-century, and still have a few players over to carry the drinks for either side.

This England team have not professed to be overly concerned about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the one-day side before him, consistently states that if a aerial shot is grabbed near the fence matters less as whether or not it was the correct choice to play it in the outset, and in the field he's quick to praise a bowler who allows scoring shots so long as they are bringing the team toward taking that following breakthrough. But then the key rationale Stokes tried to guide his players to play this way was so they would be in a better position to deliver the kind of cricket he believes will succeed for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been preparing for so long, already appears as the result they can't get away from. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are too many predictions of failure in the English game for the team to escape criticism if they do experience another disappointing result in the upcoming period. The captain's strategy has been predicated on proving everyone wrong, and the flipside is it feels as if there are numerous observers who would be delighted to be proven correct.

Considering this, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the key issue is not only where this concludes, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. A few years back, the English team were an completely dismal sports team. They had been overcome in a quartet of successive tournaments and were lagging in the fifth, against the Indian team, 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 large defeats. A loss by eight wickets to New Zealand at the Birmingham ground, A defeat by 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the Oval, an an innings defeat to the Aussie team at the iconic ground, A ten-wicket loss to the Caribbean side in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Windies in the venue in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as captain.

By the final stage, after all those periods of health protocols and social distancing and biosecure bubbles and repeated losses at the hands of each rival, they were practically the most disheartened and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever sent out to a cricket field. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in reaction to all that, as well as the former's personal encounters during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a period of mental health challenges. It was designed to make people recall that it was intended as entertaining, if it was supposed to be anything at all.

It still is now. Although the the prestigious contest is on the line, and although the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they tackle competing. Daily routines has a way of imposing, it can be challenging to retain the knowledge we acquire in our most difficult periods.

Here is the English squad that achieved successive run chases of significant totals in one period against the Kiwis; that made 378 to beat the Indian team that same summer; that became the first touring team to win a comprehensive victory in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a draw after going two games behind in the the contest; that defeated the Indian team in Hyderabad off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the region, and then overcame the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of a further exceptional performance.

It is the England team, too, that somehow end up losing a Test by an innings defeat even though the rivals made only 326; who fetched up losing one of the better Tests ever contested after making a bold declaration in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then did the same thing against Australia; who were soundly beaten by a massive 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's greatest victories. Collectively, they have secured some of the most improbable victories, suffered some of the most embarrassing exits, achieved some of the most improbable centuries, and achieved some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the records of the English game.

No matter how this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, in turn, amazing, outrageous, ridiculous, infuriating, and totally, without regret, unapologetically thrilling.