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People rarely mention the final delivery of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's legendary. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that cover drive for four, that dismissal, bowled him! Concluding moments? I needed to check. Moeen Ali cutting a stroke behind to end an innings loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his sole Test at the tail-end of a rapid downfall in a clean sweep that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the sole boundary the Australian team achieve in a target they'll not attempt in 2005.

It separates between speculating how things will go, and understanding how they do. One certainty is, there's no certainty there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, England's visits to Australia have finished in defeat, as opposed to with them. Andy Flower was removed as head coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. You can make a couple of teams out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an trip Down Under during the previous 25 years, and even have a few players over to carry the drinks for both teams.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to be overly concerned about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is grabbed near the fence isn't as important as whether or not it was the correct choice to execute it in the beginning, and while fielding he's pleased to applaud a pitcher who gives away boundaries so long as they are bringing the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the primary motive Ben Stokes tried to guide his players to adopt this approach was so they would be in a superior situation to execute the kind of cricket he thinks will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been preparing for so long, already seems like the conclusion they can't get away from. It is this aggressive approach's critical moment. And there are an abundance of predictions of failure in the English game for the team to escape criticism if they do experience another poor loss in the next few weeks. The captain's strategy has been predicated on defying expectations, and the counterpart is it feels as if there are plenty of people who would be thrilled to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a good moment to point out that the key issue is not only where this concludes, but whether or not we had fun along the way. Four years ago, the English team were an completely dismal cricket team. They had been overcome in four straight contests and were trailing in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was suspended because of the virus. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to the Black Caps at the historic venue, 157 runs to the Indian squad at the the London ground, an an innings defeat to the Australians at the MCG, 10 wickets to the Windies in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the island in March 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as leader.

By the end, after all those months of nasal swabs and preventive measures and controlled settings and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were just about the most miserable and exhausted Test team England had ever sent out to a cricket field. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the subsequent years was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a bout of anxiety. It was intended to remind everyone that it was supposed to be fun, if it was intended as something.

It still is now. Even when the the historic series is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they tackle playing the game. Daily routines has a way of imposing, it can be difficult to remember the knowledge we acquire in our most difficult periods.

Here is the English squad that secured consecutive run chases of significant totals in one season against the Kiwis; that made 378 to beat India that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the host nation; that battled hard to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the Ashes; that overcame India in the historic venue off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever executed in the the region, and then defeated Pakistan in the city off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the English squad, too, that somehow end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings even though the other team made a relatively low total; who concluded being defeated in one of the finer contests ever played after making a confident decision in the first innings against the Kiwis, and then followed suit against the Australian team; who were routed by 434 runs in the venue, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's finest wins. Between them, they have achieved some of the surprising successes, experienced some of the poorest performances, achieved some of the most improbable tons, and achieved some of the most startling five-fers in the history of the English game.

No matter how this historic contest concludes, they have been, one after another, astonishing, unbelievable, unconventional, frustrating, and totally, without regret, boldly thrilling.