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Nobody talks about the last ball of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That stray ball that flies to slip, that beautiful stroke for four, that dismissal, bowled him! Last balls? I had to research them. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to conclude a batting effort loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Ryan Harris, Rankin playing in his one and only Test at the tail-end of a quick disintegration in a clean sweep that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the single four the Aussies achieve in a run chase they'll never get to make in 2005.

It's the difference between questioning how things will go, and understanding how they do. One thing's certain, there's no guarantee there will be a positive outcome. For the past ten years, England's visits to Australia have finished in defeat, as opposed to with them. Flower lost his job as coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Silverwood lost his after a further defeat, in 2021-22. You can make a couple of teams out of England players who featured in their final Test match at the back end of an trip Down Under during the past 25 years, and still have a several individuals over to carry the drinks for either side.

This England team have not asserted to care too much about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, frequently remarks that whether or not a lofted drive is caught on the boundary isn't as important as whether it was the correct choice to play it in the beginning, and while fielding he's happy to clap a delivery man who gives away boundaries so long as they are bringing the team toward taking that next wicket. But then the key rationale Ben Stokes tried to teach his team to play this way was so they would be in a superior situation to produce the style of play he believes will perform effectively for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been planning extensively, already appears as the outcome they are bound to face. It is this aggressive approach's critical moment. And there are an abundance of “I told you so’s” in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do suffer another bad defeat in the upcoming period. His methodology has been founded on challenging skeptics, and the flipside is it seems that there are numerous observers who would be delighted to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a good moment to emphasize that the important question is not only where this ultimately leads, but whether or not we found pleasure along the way. Four years ago, England were an completely dismal sports team. They had been beaten in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was suspended because of Covid. They had won exactly one Test match out of seventeen, and lost twelve of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at the Birmingham ground, A 157-run loss to India at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to Australia at Melbourne, A ten-wicket loss to the Windies in Grenada.

England were thrashed by West Indies in the venue in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as captain.

By the end, after all those stretches of health protocols and social distancing and controlled settings and constant defeats at the hands of all opponents, they were virtually the most miserable and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a playing arena. A significant portion 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 endured a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was meant to be enjoyable, if it was meant to be anything.

That remains true now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they go about playing the game. Normal existence has a way of imposing, it can be challenging to retain the lessons we learn in our toughest times.

Here is the English squad that peeled off back-to-back fourth-innings chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against the Kiwis; that achieved a huge total to defeat the Indian team that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that fought back to a draw after going two games behind in the the contest; that overcame India in the historic venue off the back of one of the greatest innings ever executed in the the area, and then beat Pakistan in the location off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the national side, too, that managed to end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made only 326; who fetched up suffering a loss in one of the better Tests ever staged after making a cocksure declaration in the opening session against New Zealand, and then followed suit against Australia; who were routed by 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the wrong end of one of Sri Lanka's greatest victories. As a unit, they have recorded some of the unlikeliest wins, suffered some of the most embarrassing exits, made some of the surprising hundreds, and achieved some of the most remarkable five-fers in the history of English cricket.

However this prestigious tournament shakes out, they have been, one after another, amazing, outrageous, unconventional, frustrating, and completely, unrepentantly, unapologetically entertaining.