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Nobody talks about the concluding moment of the Ashes. It's the first that's famous. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, bowled him! Concluding moments? I needed to check. Ali edging a shot behind to finish an innings defeat in a inconsequential game in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Boyd Rankin playing in his sole Test at the conclusion of a 30-over collapse in a comprehensive defeat that's been commonplace in 2014; a Steve Harmison bouncer glancing off Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four the Aussies manage in a target they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and understanding how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a happy ending. For the previous decade, England's Australian tours have concluded in failure, rather than with them. Flower lost his job as coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after a further defeat, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a couple of teams out of national team members who featured in their final Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and even have a couple of men over to serve as reserves for each squad.

The current English side have never claimed to be overly concerned about outcomes. Stokes, like Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that whether or not a lofted drive is taken at the rope isn't as important as if it was the proper call to attempt it in the first place, and while fielding he's quick to praise a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they bringing the team toward taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the primary motive Ben Stokes tried to instruct his squad to play this way was so they would be in a more advantageous state to execute the style of play he thinks will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been preparing for so long, already feels like the outcome they can't get away from. It is this bold strategy's make or break moment. And there are too many warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to get away with it if they do endure a further poor loss in the next few weeks. The captain's strategy has been founded on proving everyone wrong, and the other side is it appears there are many individuals who would be pleased to be validated.

Considering this, it's a appropriate time to emphasize that the important question goes beyond where this ultimately leads, but if we had fun along the way. Four years ago, England were an thoroughly poor sports team. They had been beaten in four consecutive series and were trailing in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was postponed because of the virus. They had won only one Test match out of 17, and lost 12 of them by embarrassing margins. A loss by eight wickets to the Black Caps at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the Oval, an an innings defeat to the Aussie team at the MCG, A defeat by ten wickets to West Indies in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the island in spring 2022 just before Joe Root stepped aside as leader.

By the conclusion, after all those periods of nasal swabs and preventive measures and restricted environments and constant defeats at the hands of all opponents, they were practically the most miserable and careworn Test team England had ever put on to a sports ground. So much of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have done in the subsequent years was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had endured a series of panic attacks. It was designed to remind everyone that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was supposed to be anything.

It still is now. Despite when the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they approach 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 peeled off consecutive final innings pursuits of 277, 299, and 296 in one summer against New Zealand; that achieved a massive 378 to defeat the Indian team that identical season; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the host nation; that battled hard to a tie after going two games behind in the the contest; that beat India in the southern city off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever executed in the the area, and then beat the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of another.

It is the England team, too, that unexpectedly end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the opposition made only 326; who fetched up suffering a loss in one of the finer contests ever contested after making a cocksure declaration in the initial batting effort against New Zealand, and then did the same thing against the Australian team; who were soundly beaten by 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's greatest victories. Collectively, they have secured some of the surprising successes, experienced some of the ugliest dismissals, achieved some of the unlikeliest centuries, and secured some of the most startling five-fers in the annals of the national sport.

Regardless of how this prestigious tournament shakes out, they have been, in turn, astonishing, outrageous, absurd, exasperating, and totally, unrepentantly, boldly entertaining.