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Few recall the concluding moment of the Ashes. It's the first that's renowned. That errant delivery that reaches the slip cordon, that beautiful stroke for four, that fallen stump, bowled him! Concluding moments? I needed to check. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to end an innings defeat in a inconsequential game in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin participating in his sole Test at the fag-end of a rapid downfall in a clean sweep that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison rising delivery ricocheting away Justin Langer's shoulder for runs, the sole boundary the Australian team manage in a target they'll never get to make in 2005.

It separates between speculating how things will go, and knowing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no guarantee there will be a happy ending. For the past ten years, England's trips Down Under have concluded in failure, rather than with them. Andy Flower was removed as manager after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was let go after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of national team members who participated in their concluding Test match at the tail end of an trip Down Under during the previous 25 years, and still have a few players over to carry the drinks for either side.

Stokes' squad have not professed to worry excessively about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, frequently remarks that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is grabbed near the fence is secondary as whether it was the right decision to attempt it in the beginning, and during play he's pleased to applaud a bowler who allows scoring shots so long as they are bringing the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to teach his team to follow this style was so they would be in a more advantageous state to deliver the brand of the game he believes will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been preparing for so long, already seems like the outcome they are bound to face. It is Bazball's critical moment. And there are numerous “I told you so’s” in English cricket for the team to escape criticism if they do experience another poor loss in the next few weeks. The captain's strategy has been based on defying expectations, and the other side is it appears there are many individuals who would be delighted to be proven correct.

Given that, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the crucial matter is not only where this all ends up, but if we had fun along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an utterly abject sports team. They had been defeated in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the fifth one, against the Indian team, when it was postponed because of the virus. They had won a single Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at the historic venue, 157 runs to India at the Oval, an an innings defeat to the Aussie team at the MCG, A defeat by ten wickets to the Caribbean side in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by the Windies in Grenada in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root stepped aside as leader.

By the final stage, after all those months of health protocols and isolation and biosecure bubbles and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most dejected and exhausted Test team England had ever sent out to a sports ground. So much of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a series of panic attacks. It was created to remind everyone that it was meant to be entertaining, if it was intended as something.

That remains true now. Even when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a little more flexible in the way they tackle competing. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to retain the lessons we learn in our lowest moments.

Here is the English squad that secured consecutive run chases of three challenging targets in one summer against the Black Caps; that made a huge total to overcome the subcontinent giants that corresponding period; that became the first touring team to win a whitewash in the host nation; that fought back to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the Ashes; that defeated India in the southern city off the back of one of the greatest innings ever executed in the the region, and then beat Pakistan in Multan off the back of a subsequent one.

This is the national side, too, that managed to end up losing a Test by an innings defeat even though the rivals made only 326; who ended 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 the Aussies; who were routed by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. As a unit, they have secured some of the surprising successes, endured some of the most embarrassing exits, achieved some of the unlikeliest hundreds, and secured some of the most surprising five-fers in the annals of the national sport.

Regardless of how this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, one after another, astonishing, outrageous, ridiculous, exasperating, and completely, unapologetically, unashamedly enjoyable.