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People rarely mention the concluding moment of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That wide that flies to slip, that beautiful stroke for four, that fallen stump, bowled him! Last balls? I had to look them up. Ali cutting a stroke behind to finish an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Harris, Rankin participating in his single Test at the conclusion of a 30-over collapse in a clean sweep that's been commonplace in 2014; a Harmison bouncer deflecting off Langer's shoulder for extras, the single four Australia achieve in a run chase they'll not attempt in 2005.

It's the difference between questioning how things will go, and seeing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a positive outcome. For the last decade, the English trips Down Under have finished in defeat, instead of with them. Andy Flower was dismissed as manager after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a couple of teams out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the previous 25 years, and still have a several individuals over to act as substitutes for either side.

The current English side have not professed to care too much about outcomes. 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 if it was the proper call to play it in the beginning, and while fielding he's quick to praise a bowler who allows scoring shots so long as they are bringing the team nearer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the key rationale Ben Stokes tried to guide his players to follow this style was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the kind of cricket he thinks will do well for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been training rigorously, already seems like the result they are bound to face. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are too many “I told you so’s” in the English game for the team to avoid backlash if they do endure a further disappointing result in the coming weeks. His methodology has been founded on challenging skeptics, and the other side is it seems that there are many individuals who would be pleased to be validated.

Given that, it's a good moment to highlight that the key issue isn't just where this concludes, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an completely dismal cricket team. They had been beaten in four straight contests and were falling behind in the fifth one, against the Indian team, when it was halted because of Covid. They had won exactly one Test match out of 17, and lost a dozen of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to the Black Caps at the Birmingham ground, 157 runs to India at the Oval, an innings and 14 runs to Australia at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to the Caribbean side in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by the Windies in the island in March 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as captain.

By the final stage, after all those periods of health protocols and preventive measures and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most dejected and careworn Test team England had ever fielded to a playing arena. A significant portion of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in reaction to all that, as well as the Stokes' experiences during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had experienced a series of panic attacks. It was designed to make people recall that it was intended as entertaining, if it was meant to be anything at all.

It still is now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and even if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they tackle competing. Everyday life has a way of intruding, it can be hard to retain the lessons we learn in our lowest moments.

This is the England team that peeled off back-to-back final innings pursuits of significant totals in one period against the Kiwis; that achieved a massive 378 to overcome India that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going trailing by two matches in the the series; that beat India in Hyderabad off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever executed in the the region, and then overcame Pakistan in the city off the back of a further exceptional performance.

It is the national side, too, that somehow end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings even though the other team made only 326; who fetched up losing one of the better Tests ever played after making a cocksure declaration in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were thrashed by 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the wrong end of one of the island nation's most notable triumphs. Collectively, they have secured some of the unlikeliest wins, endured some of the poorest performances, achieved some of the surprising tons, and taken some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the annals of the English game.

Regardless of how this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, one after another, amazing, unbelievable, ridiculous, frustrating, and totally, without regret, boldly enjoyable.