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Few recall the last ball of the Ashes. That initial ball that's famous. That stray ball that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, clean bowled! Final deliveries? I had to look them up. Ali cutting a stroke behind to finish an innings rout in a inconsequential game in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin playing in his single Test at the tail-end of a rapid downfall in a 5-0 whitewash that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison short ball deflecting off Justin Langer's shoulder for runs, the only four the Aussies score in a target they'll not attempt in 2005.

It separates between questioning how things will go, and understanding how they do. One certainty is, there's no assurance there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, England's Australian tours have ended in ashes, as opposed to with them. Flower was dismissed as coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a pair of XIs out of English cricketers who featured in their final Test match at the conclusion of an trip Down Under during the past 25 years, and even have a few players over to serve as reserves for each squad.

Stokes' squad have never claimed to be overly concerned about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is taken at the rope isn't as important as whether or not it was the right decision to execute it in the first place, and in the field he's quick to praise a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they bringing the team closer to taking that next wicket. But then the key rationale Stokes tried to instruct his squad to play this way was so they would be in a more advantageous state to deliver the kind of cricket he feels will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been planning extensively, already appears as the conclusion they are bound to face. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are an abundance of “I told you so’s” in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do suffer another bad defeat in the upcoming period. Stokes's approach has been predicated on defying expectations, and the flipside is it seems that there are plenty of people who would be delighted to be shown right.

In light of this, it's a good moment to emphasize that the important question goes beyond where this ultimately leads, but whether or not we had fun along the way. A few years back, England were an thoroughly poor national side. They had been defeated in four consecutive series and were trailing in the fifth one, against the Indian team, when it was suspended because of the virus. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost twelve of them by large defeats. A loss by eight wickets to New Zealand at the Birmingham ground, A 157-run loss to India at the Oval, an a comprehensive loss to the Australians at Melbourne, A ten-wicket loss to West Indies in Grenada.

The team was soundly beaten by the Windies in Grenada in spring 2022 just before Root stepped aside as captain.

By the final stage, after all those months of testing and isolation and biosecure bubbles and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were practically the most disheartened and exhausted Test team the English cricket board had ever put on to a playing arena. So much of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have done in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's experiences during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a period of mental health challenges. It was designed to make people recall that it was supposed to be entertaining, if it was intended as something.

This continues to be the case now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they approach playing the game. Daily routines has a way of crowding in, it can be hard to remember the knowledge we acquire in our lowest moments.

Presented is the England team that secured successive run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against the Kiwis; that achieved a massive 378 to beat India that identical season; that became the initial visiting side to win a clean sweep in the subcontinent country; that fought back to a draw after going 2-0 down in the the series; that overcame the Indian team in Hyderabad off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever played in the subcontinent, and then overcame Pakistan in the city off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the national side, too, that unexpectedly end up losing a Test by an large margin even though the opposition made only 326; who ended up losing one of the finer contests ever played after making a cocksure declaration in the first innings against the Kiwis, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were soundly beaten by a massive 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the wrong end of one of the island nation's most notable triumphs. Between them, they have recorded some of the most improbable victories, endured some of the ugliest dismissals, achieved some of the most improbable tons, and achieved some of the most startling exceptional bowling spells in the records of the national sport.

However this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, in turn, astonishing, unbelievable, ridiculous, infuriating, and totally, without regret, unashamedly thrilling.