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Nobody talks about the final delivery of the Ashes. That initial ball that's famous. That stray ball that goes to the slips, that elegant shot for four, that wicket, bowled him! Last balls? I needed to check. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to end an innings loss in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin participating in his sole Test at the conclusion of a 30-over collapse in a comprehensive defeat that's been commonplace in 2014; a Steve Harmison short ball deflecting off Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the sole boundary the Aussies score in a run chase they'll not attempt in 2005.

It separates between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a positive outcome. For the past ten years, England's trips Down Under have ended in ashes, as opposed to with them. Flower was removed as manager after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of England players who played their last Test match at the tail end of an tour to Australia during the past 25 years, and even have a few players over to serve as reserves for either side.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to worry excessively about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, consistently states that whether or not a lifted stroke is caught on the boundary matters less as whether it was the right decision to execute it in the beginning, and while fielding he's happy to clap a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they help bring the team toward taking that next wicket. But then the primary motive Stokes tried to teach his team to follow this style was so they would be in a better position to produce the kind of cricket he feels will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been training rigorously, already appears as the conclusion they cannot escape. It is Bazball's decisive moment. And there are an abundance of warnings of defeat in English cricket for the team to get away with it if they do suffer another disappointing result in the upcoming period. The captain's strategy has been predicated on defying expectations, and the other side is it seems that there are many individuals who would be thrilled to be proven correct.

In light of this, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the key issue goes beyond where this all ends up, but whether or not we had fun along the way. A few years back, the English team were an completely dismal sports team. They had been overcome in four consecutive series and were lagging in the fifth one, against India, when it was postponed because of the virus. They had won a single Test match out of 17, and lost a dozen of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to the Kiwis at the Birmingham ground, 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the Oval, an an innings defeat to Australia at Melbourne, 10 wickets to West Indies in Grenada.

The English side was routed by the Windies in Grenada in spring 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as skipper.

By the end, after all those periods of testing and isolation and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were practically the most dejected and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever sent out to a playing arena. A significant portion of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have achieved in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a series of panic attacks. It was designed to emphasize to all that it was intended as entertaining, if it was supposed to be anything at all.

That remains true now. Even when the the prestigious contest is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they go about competing. Normal existence has a way of imposing, it can be hard to retain the insights we gain in our lowest moments.

Here is the national side that achieved back-to-back final innings pursuits of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against the Kiwis; that achieved a massive 378 to beat India that same summer; that became the first touring team to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that fought back to a draw after going two games behind in the the contest; that beat India in Hyderabad off the back of one of the greatest innings ever played in the subcontinent, and then defeated the Pakistani team in the location off the back of another.

It is the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the other team made a modest 326; who concluded losing one of the better Tests ever contested after making a bold declaration in the opening session against the Black Caps, and then followed suit against Australia; who were thrashed by a massive 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the wrong end of one of the Sri Lankan team's most notable triumphs. As a unit, they have achieved some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the poorest performances, achieved some of the unlikeliest tons, and secured some of the most surprising five-fers in the records of English cricket.

However this prestigious tournament concludes, they have been, in turn, incredible, unbelievable, ridiculous, exasperating, and completely, unapologetically, unapologetically entertaining.