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People rarely mention the final delivery of the Ashes. That initial ball that's legendary. That stray ball that goes to the slips, that elegant shot for four, that wicket, clean bowled! Final deliveries? I had to research them. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to end an innings loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin playing in his sole Test at the conclusion of a rapid downfall in a comprehensive defeat that's been commonplace in 2014; a Steve Harmison rising delivery ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four the Aussies manage in a pursuit 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 guarantee there will be a successful conclusion. For the past ten years, the English trips Down Under have ended in ashes, as opposed to with them. Flower lost his job as manager after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after another, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of national team members who played their last Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the last quarter-century, and still have a several individuals over to carry the drinks for each squad.

The current English side have never claimed to be overly concerned about results. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that whether or not a lifted stroke is taken at the rope matters less as whether it was the right decision to execute it in the outset, and while fielding he's quick to praise a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the primary motive Stokes tried to guide his players to follow this style was so they would be in a more advantageous state to execute the kind of cricket he thinks will succeed for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already feels like the result they cannot escape. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are numerous warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another bad defeat in the coming weeks. Stokes's approach has been based on challenging skeptics, and the counterpart is it appears there are plenty of people who would be delighted to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a suitable occasion to point out that the key issue goes beyond where this concludes, but if we had fun along the way. Four years ago, the English team were an thoroughly poor cricket team. They had been overcome in a quartet of successive tournaments and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won exactly one 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 India at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to the Aussie team at the MCG, A defeat by ten wickets to the Windies in the island nation.

England were thrashed by the Caribbean team in the venue in March 2022 just before Root resigned as skipper.

By the end, after all those stretches of health protocols and preventive measures and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were just about the most disheartened and weary Test team England had ever put on to a cricket field. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the subsequent years was in reaction to all that, as well as the former's individual trials during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was intended as something.

That remains true now. Even when the Ashes is on the line, and even if 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 intruding, it can be hard to remember the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the England team that secured successive run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one season against the Black Caps; that made a huge total to overcome India that same summer; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in Pakistan; that battled hard to a tie after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that overcame India in the southern city off the back of one of the greatest innings ever performed in the subcontinent, and then overcame the Pakistani team in the city off the back of another.

It is the English squad, too, that unexpectedly end up losing a Test by an large margin even though the opposition made only 326; who ended up suffering a loss in one of the better Tests ever contested after making a confident decision in the initial batting effort against the Kiwis, and then did the same thing against the Aussies; who were thrashed by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's most notable triumphs. Collectively, they have recorded some of the unlikeliest wins, endured some of the most embarrassing exits, scored some of the surprising centuries, and secured some of the most startling exceptional bowling spells in the history of the English game.

No matter how this prestigious tournament concludes, they have been, in turn, amazing, outrageous, ridiculous, frustrating, and totally, without regret, boldly thrilling.