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Few recall the final delivery of the Ashes. It's the first that's legendary. That wide that goes to the slips, that cover drive for four, that wicket, bowled him! Last balls? I needed to check. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to end an innings rout in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin participating in his one and only Test at the tail-end of a quick disintegration in a 5-0 whitewash that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison short ball deflecting off Langer's shoulder for runs, the single four the Aussies score in a target they'll not attempt in 2005.

It separates between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One certainty is, there's no guarantee there will be a successful conclusion. For the past ten years, the English trips Down Under have ended in ashes, rather than with them. Andy Flower was dismissed as coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. You can make a couple of teams out of England players who participated in their concluding Test match at the tail end of an Australian tour during the last quarter-century, and still have a couple of men over to act as substitutes for each squad.

The current English side have never claimed to be overly concerned about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that if a lofted drive is taken at the rope matters less as whether it was the proper call to attempt it in the outset, and while fielding he's quick to praise a bowler who concedes runs so long as they are bringing the team toward taking that following breakthrough. But then the primary motive Stokes tried to guide his players to play this way was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the brand of the game he thinks will perform effectively for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already appears as the result they cannot escape. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are too many predictions of failure in the English game for the team to avoid backlash if they do endure a further poor loss in the next few weeks. The captain's strategy has been predicated on proving everyone wrong, and the other side is it appears there are numerous observers who would be pleased to be proven correct.

Given that, it's a suitable occasion to point out that the key issue goes beyond where this ultimately leads, but regardless of whether we found pleasure along the way. Four years ago, England were an utterly abject national side. They had been beaten in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the fifth, against the Indian team, when it was suspended because of Covid. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost twelve of them by large defeats. Eight wickets to the Kiwis at the historic venue, A 157-run loss to the subcontinent team at the the London ground, an an innings defeat to Australia at the MCG, A ten-wicket loss to West Indies in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the venue in spring 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as captain.

By the final stage, after all those months of health protocols and isolation and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were just about the most miserable and careworn Test team England had ever put on to a playing arena. So much of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have achieved 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 endured a period of mental health challenges. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was intended as fun, if it was meant to be anything at all.

That remains true now. Although the the prestigious contest is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they go about performing. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be challenging to hold on to the insights we gain in our toughest times.

Here is the national side that achieved successive fourth-innings chases of three challenging targets in one summer against New Zealand; that scored a huge total to beat India that same summer; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the host nation; that fought back to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the the series; that defeated the Indian team in Hyderabad off the back of one of the greatest innings ever played in the the area, and then overcame the Pakistani team in the location off the back of a further exceptional performance.

This is the England team, too, that managed to end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made only 326; who ended up being defeated in one of the finer contests ever contested after making a confident decision in the opening session against New Zealand, and then followed suit against Australia; who were thrashed by 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the island nation's most notable triumphs. Between them, they have recorded some of the surprising successes, suffered some of the most embarrassing exits, achieved some of the surprising hundreds, and achieved some of the most surprising five-fers in the annals of English cricket.

Regardless of how this Ashes series concludes, they have been, one after another, amazing, unbelievable, unconventional, frustrating, and entirely, unapologetically, unashamedly thrilling.