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Nobody talks about the final delivery of the Ashes. That initial ball that's famous. That errant delivery that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, clean bowled! Last balls? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali cutting a stroke behind to conclude a batting effort rout in a dead rubber in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Harris, Boyd Rankin participating in his one and only Test at the tail-end of a 30-over collapse in a clean sweep that's been commonplace in 2014; a Harmison rising delivery ricocheting away Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the single four Australia achieve in a pursuit they'll not attempt in 2005.

It's the difference between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, the English visits to Australia have concluded in failure, rather than with them. Flower was removed as manager after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Silverwood was let go after another, in 2021-22. One could assemble a two lineups out of England players who played their last Test match at the conclusion of an tour to Australia during the past 25 years, and even have a few players over to carry the drinks for either side.

Stokes' squad have not asserted to care too much about outcomes. Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the one-day side before him, frequently remarks that whether or not a lofted drive is grabbed near the fence matters less as if it was the right decision to attempt it in the beginning, and while fielding he's quick to praise a delivery man who allows scoring shots so long as they help bring the team toward taking that next wicket. But then the key rationale Stokes tried to instruct his squad to follow this style was so they would be in a better position to execute the kind of cricket he thinks 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 this bold strategy's make or break moment. And there are numerous warnings of defeat in English cricket for the team to escape criticism if they do endure a further disappointing result in the next few weeks. Stokes's approach has been predicated on challenging skeptics, and the flipside is it appears there are many individuals who would be thrilled to be validated.

Considering this, it's a suitable occasion to point out that the key issue is not only where this ultimately leads, but whether or not we found pleasure along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an thoroughly poor sports team. They had been beaten in four straight contests and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was halted because of Covid. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by large defeats. An eight-wicket defeat to the Black Caps at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the the London ground, an an innings defeat to the Aussie team at the MCG, 10 wickets to the Caribbean side in Grenada.

The team was soundly beaten by the Windies in Grenada in March 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as skipper.

By the end, after all those periods of health protocols and social distancing and biosecure bubbles and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were practically the most disheartened and weary Test team England had ever put on to a sports ground. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the following period was in response to all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was created to make people recall that it was supposed to be fun, if it was meant to be something.

It still is now. Despite when the Ashes 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 playing the game. Everyday life has a way of imposing, it can be hard to hold on to the lessons we learn in our toughest times.

Here is the England team that peeled off back-to-back run chases of three challenging targets in one period against the Black Caps; that achieved 378 to overcome India that corresponding period; that became the first touring team to win a clean sweep in the subcontinent country; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going 2-0 down in the the series; that overcame the Indian team in Hyderabad off the back of one of the greatest innings ever played in the the area, and then defeated Pakistan in the city off the back of a further exceptional performance.

This is the England team, too, that managed to end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an large margin even though the rivals made a modest 326; who fetched up losing one of the better Tests ever staged after making a bold declaration in the initial batting effort against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were soundly beaten by 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of Sri Lanka's most notable triumphs. As a unit, they have achieved some of the unlikeliest wins, suffered some of the ugliest dismissals, achieved some of the surprising hundreds, and secured some of the most surprising five-wicket hauls in the history of the English game.

No matter how this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, in turn, amazing, outrageous, ridiculous, infuriating, and totally, without regret, unapologetically thrilling.