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Few recall the last ball of the Ashes. It's the first that's famous. That wide that reaches the slip cordon, that cover drive for four, that wicket, bowled him! Concluding moments? I had to research them. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to end an innings rout in a inconsequential game in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin playing in his single Test at the fag-end of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison rising delivery deflecting off Langer's shoulder for runs, the sole boundary the Aussies manage in a run chase they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and seeing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no assurance there will be a positive outcome. For the last decade, the English trips Down Under have finished in defeat, instead of with them. Flower was dismissed as head coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after a further defeat, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of England players who participated in their concluding Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and still have a few players over to act as substitutes for each squad.

Stokes' squad have not professed to care too much about outcomes. Stokes, like Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, frequently remarks that if a lofted drive is taken at the rope isn't as important as if it was the proper call to attempt it in the beginning, and in the field he's quick to praise a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they are bringing the team nearer to taking that following breakthrough. But then the very reason Ben Stokes tried to instruct his squad to play this way was so they would be in a superior situation to execute the style of play he thinks will succeed for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been preparing for so long, already feels like 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 avoid backlash if they do experience another bad defeat in the coming weeks. His methodology has been based on defying expectations, and the other side is it seems that there are plenty of people who would be thrilled to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a appropriate time to highlight that the crucial matter isn't just where this ultimately leads, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. In the recent past, England were an utterly abject sports team. They had been overcome in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the fifth one, against India, when it was halted because of Covid. They had won only one Test match out of seventeen, and lost twelve of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at Edgbaston, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the the famous stadium, an innings and 14 runs to the Aussie team at the MCG, A ten-wicket loss to the Windies in the island nation.

England were thrashed by the Caribbean team in the venue in the early part of 2022 just before Root stepped aside as captain.

By the conclusion, after all those stretches of testing and preventive measures and biosecure bubbles and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most dejected and exhausted Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a playing arena. A significant portion of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have done in the years since was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was designed to emphasize to all that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was intended as anything.

It still is now. Even when the Ashes is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they approach performing. Normal existence has a way of imposing, it can be difficult to hold on to the knowledge we acquire in our lowest moments.

Presented is the national side that secured back-to-back run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against New Zealand; that achieved a massive 378 to defeat the subcontinent giants that corresponding period; that became the initial visiting side to win a comprehensive victory in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a tie after going two games behind in the the contest; that beat the Indian team in the historic venue off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the area, and then overcame Pakistan in Multan off the back of another.

Here we have the English squad, too, that unexpectedly end up being defeated in a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made only 326; who fetched up suffering a loss in one of the better Tests ever played after making a cocksure declaration in the opening session against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were soundly beaten by a massive 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the losing side of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. As a unit, they have recorded some of the most improbable victories, experienced some of the poorest performances, scored some of the unlikeliest tons, and achieved some of the most remarkable exceptional bowling spells in the records of English cricket.

However this prestigious tournament shakes out, they have been, in turn, amazing, outrageous, unconventional, frustrating, and entirely, unapologetically, unapologetically entertaining.