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Nobody talks about the concluding moment of the Ashes. That initial ball that's famous. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that beautiful stroke for four, that dismissal, shattering the stumps! Last balls? I had to research them. Ali cutting a stroke behind to conclude a batting effort loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his single Test at the fag-end of a rapid downfall in a 5-0 whitewash that's been commonplace in 2014; a Harmison bouncer ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for runs, the single four Australia achieve in a run chase they'll not undertake in 2005.

It distinguishes between wondering how things will go, and knowing how they do. One certainty is, there's no guarantee there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, the English trips Down Under have ended in ashes, as opposed to with them. Andy Flower lost his job as head coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after a further defeat, in 2021-22. You can make a couple of teams out of English cricketers who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the last quarter-century, and even have a several individuals over to act as substitutes for either side.

The current English side have never claimed to worry excessively about consequences. Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, frequently remarks that if a aerial shot is taken at the rope is secondary as whether or not it was the proper call to play it in the first place, and in the field he's happy to clap a delivery man who gives away boundaries so long as they bringing the team toward taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Ben Stokes tried to teach his team to play this way was so they would be in a better position to produce the kind of cricket he feels will succeed for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already appears as the result they are bound to face. It is this aggressive approach's critical moment. And there are numerous warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to avoid backlash if they do suffer another poor loss in the coming weeks. Stokes's approach has been founded on defying expectations, and the flipside is it appears there are many individuals who would be thrilled to be shown right.

In light of this, it's a suitable occasion to emphasize that the crucial matter is not only where this ultimately leads, but if we had fun along the way. A few years back, England were an thoroughly poor cricket team. They had been defeated in a quartet of successive tournaments and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was suspended because of Covid. They had won exactly one Test match out of seventeen, and lost a dozen of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at the Birmingham ground, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the the London ground, an innings and 14 runs to the Aussie team at the MCG, 10 wickets to the Windies in Grenada.

The team was soundly beaten by the Windies in the venue in the early part of 2022 just before Root stepped aside as captain.

By the final stage, after all those periods of health protocols and isolation and biosecure bubbles and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were practically the most miserable and exhausted Test team England had ever sent out to a sports ground. A significant portion of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have done in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's personal encounters during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a bout of anxiety. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was intended as fun, if it was intended as anything.

This continues to be the case now. Even when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they tackle competing. Daily routines has a way of intruding, it can be hard to remember the insights we gain in our toughest times.

This is the English squad that peeled off successive final innings pursuits of three challenging targets in one summer against New Zealand; that achieved a huge total to defeat the subcontinent giants that same summer; that became the initial visiting side to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going 2-0 down in the the series; that beat the Indian team in the historic venue off the back of one of the greatest innings ever executed in the the area, and then defeated Pakistan in the city off the back of a subsequent one.

This is the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings defeat even though the other team made only 326; who fetched up losing one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were soundly beaten by a huge margin in Rajkot, and who were on the wrong end of one of the Sri Lankan team's greatest victories. Collectively, they have achieved some of the most improbable victories, endured some of the most embarrassing exits, made some of the most improbable centuries, and taken some of the most surprising five-fers in the history of the English game.

No matter how this prestigious tournament concludes, they have been, in turn, incredible, unbelievable, absurd, exasperating, and completely, without regret, unapologetically thrilling.