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People rarely mention the last ball of the Ashes. That initial ball that's legendary. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that beautiful stroke for four, that wicket, clean bowled! Concluding moments? I had to research them. Moeen Ali cutting a stroke behind to finish an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his one and only Test at the fag-end of a rapid downfall in a comprehensive defeat that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison bouncer ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for extras, the single four the Aussies manage in a target they'll not attempt in 2005.

It distinguishes between questioning how things will go, and seeing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a happy ending. For the past ten years, the English Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Flower was dismissed as coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was let go after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of English cricketers who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and still have a few players over to carry the drinks for either side.

This England team have not asserted to care too much about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that regardless of whether a lofted drive is taken at the rope is secondary as whether or not it was the proper call to execute it in the first place, and in the field he's happy to clap a bowler who concedes runs so long as they bringing the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to instruct his squad to play this way was so they would be in a more advantageous state to execute the brand of the game he feels will perform effectively for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already feels like the result they can't get away from. It is Bazball's critical moment. And there are too many “I told you so’s” in the English game for the team to get away with it if they do experience another bad defeat in the coming 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 thrilled to be shown right.

Given that, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the key issue is not only where this ultimately leads, but whether or not we found pleasure along the way. A few years back, England were an utterly abject cricket team. They had been overcome in four consecutive series and were lagging in the final one, against India, when it was postponed because of the virus. They had won exactly one Test match out of 17, and lost twelve of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at Edgbaston, A 157-run loss to India at the Oval, an innings and 14 runs to Australia at Melbourne, A ten-wicket loss to the Caribbean side in the island nation.

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

By the end, after all those periods of testing and isolation and restricted environments and repeated losses at the hands of all opponents, they were virtually the most disheartened and careworn Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a sports ground. A great deal of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have achieved in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was designed to make people recall that it was meant to be enjoyable, if it was supposed to be anything.

It still is now. Although the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they go about performing. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to remember the lessons we learn in our lowest moments.

Here is the English squad that peeled off back-to-back run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one period against New Zealand; that achieved a huge total to defeat the Indian team that corresponding period; that became the initial visiting side to win a comprehensive victory in the host nation; that battled hard to a tie after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that overcame the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the region, and then beat the Pakistani team in the location off the back of a further exceptional performance.

This is the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up losing a Test by an innings defeat even though the other team made only 326; who concluded suffering a loss in one of the more exciting matches ever staged after making a confident decision in the first innings against New Zealand, and then did the same thing against the Australian team; who were routed by a massive 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the losing side of one of the Sri Lankan team's most notable triumphs. Between them, they have achieved some of the surprising successes, experienced some of the poorest performances, achieved some of the unlikeliest hundreds, and taken some of the most remarkable five-fers in the annals of the national sport.

However this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, one after another, incredible, outrageous, unconventional, infuriating, and completely, unrepentantly, unashamedly thrilling.