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People rarely mention the concluding moment of the Ashes. It's the first that's renowned. That errant delivery that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, bowled him! Concluding moments? I had to look them up. Ali edging a shot behind to conclude a batting effort loss in a inconsequential game in 2015; Boyd Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Harris, Rankin playing in his one and only Test at the conclusion of a rapid downfall in a comprehensive defeat that's been commonplace in 2014; a Harmison short ball glancing off Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four Australia manage in a run chase they'll not attempt in 2005.

It's the difference between speculating how things will go, and knowing how they do. One certainty is, there's no assurance there will be a happy ending. For the past ten years, the English visits to Australia have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Flower was dismissed as coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after a further defeat, 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 last quarter-century, and still have a few players over to serve as reserves for either side.

This England team have not professed to care too much about outcomes. Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is grabbed near the fence matters less as if it was the right decision to attempt it in the outset, and in the field he's happy to clap a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that next wicket. But then the key rationale Ben Stokes tried to instruct his squad to adopt this approach was so they would be in a better position to deliver the style of play he thinks will do well for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already seems like the conclusion they are bound to face. It is this bold strategy's make or break moment. And there are an abundance of predictions of failure in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another disappointing result in the upcoming period. The captain's strategy has been based on challenging skeptics, and the other side is it seems that there are plenty of people who would be pleased to be validated.

In light of this, it's a appropriate time to emphasize that the important question is not only where this ultimately leads, but if we enjoyed it along the way. Four years ago, England were an utterly abject cricket team. They had been defeated in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the final one, against India, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won only one Test match out of seventeen, and lost 12 of them by embarrassing margins. Eight wickets to the Kiwis at the Birmingham ground, A 157-run loss to the subcontinent team at the the famous stadium, an innings and 14 runs to Australia at the iconic ground, 10 wickets to the Caribbean side in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the island in the early part of 2022 just before Root stepped down as leader.

By the final stage, after all those months of nasal swabs and isolation and biosecure bubbles and endless beatings at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most dejected and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a playing arena. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's individual trials during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a bout of anxiety. It was designed to remind everyone that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was supposed to be anything.

That remains true now. Even when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they approach competing. Normal existence has a way of imposing, it can be hard to hold on to the lessons we learn in our toughest times.

This is the national side that achieved successive run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one summer against New Zealand; that made a huge total to beat India that same summer; that became the initial visiting side to win a whitewash in the host nation; that fought back to a draw after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that defeated the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever executed in the the region, and then overcame the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of a further exceptional performance.

Here we have the English squad, too, that somehow end up being defeated in a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made a modest 326; who ended up being defeated in one of the better Tests ever played after making a cocksure declaration in the first innings against the Black Caps, and then followed suit against Australia; who were thrashed by a massive 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the losing side of one of the island nation's finest wins. Collectively, they have recorded some of the unlikeliest wins, suffered some of the poorest performances, made some of the surprising hundreds, and taken some of the most remarkable exceptional bowling spells in the records of the national sport.

However this Ashes series unfolds, they have been, successively, astonishing, outrageous, unconventional, infuriating, and completely, unrepentantly, unashamedly thrilling.